Special Marine Warning for Tidal Potomac River Areas
This alert is no longer in effect.
NOAA issued it on August 16, 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 Baltimore MD/Washington DC issued a Special Marine Warning for the Tidal Potomac from Key Bridge to Cobb Island MD until 9:00 PM EDT due to strong thunderstorms producing wind gusts of 34 knots or greater.
Read this weather record in 30 seconds
- Record type
- Special Marine Warning
- Affected area
- Tidal Potomac River, Maryland
- Issued
- August 16, 2026
- Issuing authority
- NWS Baltimore MD/Washington DC
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 Tidal Potomac River, Maryland.
Alert Details
A Special Marine Warning has been issued by the National Weather Service in Sterling, Virginia (NWS Baltimore MD/Washington DC). The alert is effective from August 16, 2026 at 7:32 PM EDT until August 16, 2026 at 9:00 PM EDT.
Affected Areas
The warning covers Tidal Potomac from Key Bridge to Indian Head MD and Tidal Potomac from Indian Head to Cobb Island MD. Locations impacted include Fort Washington, Tidal Basin, Reagan National Airport, Gunston Hall, Mason Neck State Park, Woodrow Wilson Bridge, Indian Head, Key Bridge, Occoquan Bay, Fort Hunt, National Harbor, and Alexandria.
What You Should Do
Move to safe harbor immediately as gusty winds and high waves are expected. Frequent lightning is occurring with these storms. If caught on the open water stay below deck if possible, keep away from ungrounded metal objects.
Expected Conditions
At 7:32 PM EDT, strong thunderstorms were located along a line extending from 26 nm northwest of Tidal Basin to 21 nm west of Key Bridge to 21 nm west of Alexandria to 22 nm northwest of Mason Neck State Park, moving east at 35 knots. Hazard includes wind gusts 34 knots or greater. Source is radar indicated. Impact includes boaters in small craft could be thrown overboard by suddenly higher winds and waves capsizing their vessel.
Timeline
The alert is in effect from 7:32 PM EDT to 9:00 PM EDT on August 16, 2026.
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 (1,401 characters here).
Similar severity timing
Same severity (high) notices issued closest in time to August 16, 2026.
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