Special Marine Warning Issued for Chesapeake Bay and Virginia Waters
This alert is no longer in effect.
NOAA issued it on July 14, 2026, 5 weeks 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 Chesapeake Bay zones, York River, James River and coastal waters until 10:00 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
- Chesapeake Bay, Virginia
- Issued
- July 14, 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 5 weeks ago; use the issuing agency's live warning service for current conditions in Chesapeake Bay, Virginia.
Alert Details
A Special Marine Warning (event code MAW) has been issued by the National Weather Service in Wakefield VA. The alert is effective from June 14, 2026 at 8:33 PM EDT and expires June 14, 2026 at 10:00 PM EDT.
Affected Areas
The warning covers Chesapeake Bay from Windmill Point to New Point Comfort VA; 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; York River; James River from Jamestown to the James River Bridge; James River from JRB to HRBT, Including the Elizabeth River; and Coastal waters from Parramore Island to Cape Charles Light VA out 20 NM. Impacted locations include Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, New Point Comfort, Wolf Trap, Burwell Bay, Cape Henry, Thimble Shoals, Tue Marshes Light, Hampton Flats, The Hump, The Cell, Willoughby Bay, Cape Charles Light, Sewells Point, Cabbage Patch, Cape Charles Harbor, 1st Island Bay Bridge, Latimer Shoal, Plantation Light, Mobjack Bay, and Gwynns Island.
What You Should Do
Move to safe harbor until hazardous weather passes. 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 8:33 PM EDT, strong thunderstorms were located along a line extending from 7 nm northwest of Mobjack Bay to 6 nm west of Coleman Bridge to near Cobham Bay, moving east at 30 knots. Hazard includes wind gusts 34 knots or greater. Small craft could be damaged in briefly higher winds and suddenly higher waves.
Timeline
The alert is in effect from 8:33 PM EDT until 10:00 PM EDT on June 14, 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 (1,687 characters here).
Similar severity timing
Same severity (high) notices issued closest in time to July 14, 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about this NWS weather alert.