Special Marine Warning Issued for Chesapeake Bay and Coastal Waters
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NWS Wakefield VA has issued a Special Marine Warning for Chesapeake Bay areas and coastal waters until 9:00 PM EDT due to a strong thunderstorm producing wind gusts of 34 knots or greater.
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- Record type
- Special Marine Warning
- Affected area
- Chesapeake Bay, Virginia
- Issued
- September 5, 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: publication date is recent, but current status is not stored on this page. Check the issuing agency's live warning service before acting because warnings can be updated, narrowed, or cancelled.
Alert Details
Special Marine Warning issued by NWS Wakefield VA. Effective from September 4, 2026 at 8:18 PM EDT until September 4, 2026 at 9:00 PM EDT. Severity: Severe. Urgency: Immediate. Certainty: Likely.
Affected Areas
Chesapeake Bay from New Point Comfort to Little Creek VA; Chesapeake Bay from Little Creek VA to Cape Henry VA including the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel; James River from JRB to HRBT, Including the Elizabeth River; Coastal Waters from Cape Charles Light to Virginia-North Carolina border out 20 NM.
What You Should Do
Move to safe harbor until hazardous weather passes.
Expected Conditions
At 8:17 PM EDT, a strong thunderstorm was located over Willoughby Bay, moving east to southeast at 20 knots. Hazard: Wind gusts 34 knots or greater. Impact: Small craft could be damaged in briefly higher winds and suddenly higher waves.
Timeline
Alert effective September 4, 2026 at 8:18 PM EDT and expires September 4, 2026 at 9:00 PM 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 (975 characters here).
Similar severity timing
Same severity (high) notices issued closest in time to September 5, 2026.
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