Special Marine Warning for James River and Elizabeth River Areas
This alert is no longer in effect.
NOAA issued it on August 17, 2026, 7 days ago. Warnings of this kind stay in effect for hours to a few days, so this page is a historical record of what was issued, not a current warning. For conditions where you are right now, check weather.gov (US), weather.gc.ca (Canada), the Met Office (UK), or the Bureau of Meteorology (Australia).
Areazine synthesizes this NWS weather alert directly from NOAA's official public data feed. See our methodology for full source attribution and refresh cadence.
NWS Wakefield VA has issued a Special Marine Warning for the James River from Jamestown to the James River Bridge and from JRB to HRBT including the Elizabeth River until 1:00 AM EDT.
Read this weather record in 30 seconds
- Record type
- Special Marine Warning
- Affected area
- James River, Virginia
- Issued
- August 17, 2026
- Issuing authority
- NWS Wakefield VA
Marine notices apply to named waters or shoreline zones. They may not describe conditions on land, even when the nearest place name is the same.
Record status: historical. It was issued 7 days ago; use the issuing agency's live warning service for current conditions in James River, Virginia.
Alert Details
Special Marine Warning issued by NWS Wakefield VA. Effective from 11:32 PM EDT August 16, 2026 until 1:00 AM EDT August 17, 2026. Severity: Severe. Urgency: Immediate. Certainty: Likely.
Affected Areas
James River from Jamestown to the James River Bridge; James River from JRB to HRBT, Including the Elizabeth River. Locations impacted include Hampton River Inlet, James River Bridge, Hampton Flats, Monitor Merrimack Bridge Tunnel, Willoughby Bay, Burwell Bay, Sewells Point, Cobham Bay, and Dominion Pier.
What You Should Do
Move to safe harbor until hazardous weather passes.
Expected Conditions
Strong thunderstorms located along a line extending from 21 nm northwest of Cobham Bay to 26 nm west of Burwell Bay to 38 nm west of Coleman Bridge, moving southeast at 30 knots. Hazard: Wind gusts to 40 knots. Impact: Small craft could be damaged in briefly higher winds and suddenly higher waves.
Timeline
Alert effective immediately on August 16 at 11:32 PM EDT and expires August 17 at 1:00 AM EDT.
Original source: NOAA Official Notice ↗
Related Weather Alerts
All Weather Alerts →Nationwide notices with similar length or severity timing 8
Two Areazine-derived peer sets for this NWS weather alert: nearest notices by body length and by same severity near the same agency date. Peers come from other categories so they are not the same-feed Related list above.
Similar body length
Nearest notices by article body length (1,034 characters here).
Similar severity timing
Same severity (high) notices issued closest in time to August 17, 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about this NWS weather alert.