Special Marine Warning Issued for Tidal Potomac Areas
This alert is no longer in effect.
NOAA issued it on August 18, 2026, 6 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 has issued a Special Marine Warning for the Tidal Potomac from Indian Head to Smith Point VA until 9:45 PM EDT.
Read this weather record in 30 seconds
- Record type
- Special Marine Warning
- Affected area
- Tidal Potomac River, MD/VA
- Issued
- August 18, 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 6 days ago; use the issuing agency's live warning service for current conditions in Tidal Potomac River, MD/VA.
Alert Details
Special Marine Warning issued by NWS Baltimore MD/Washington DC. Effective from August 17, 2026 at 8:18 PM EDT until August 17, 2026 at 9:45 PM EDT.
Affected Areas
Tidal Potomac from Indian Head to Cobb Island MD; Tidal Potomac from Cobb Island MD to Smith Point VA. Locations impacted include Yeocomico River, Breton Bay, Saint Clements Bay, Piney Point, Mouth Of The Potomac River, Colonial Beach, Point Lookout, Tall Timbers, Cobb Island, Swan Point, Coltons Point, Nomini Bay, Coles Point, U.S. 301 Nice Memorial Bridge, Saint George Island, Wicomico River, White Point Beach, Popes Creek, and Westmoreland State Park.
What You Should Do
Move to safe harbor until hazardous weather passes. Report severe weather to the Coast Guard or the National Weather Service.
Expected Conditions
At 8:18 PM EDT, a strong thunderstorm was located near Colonial Beach, moving southeast at 30 knots. Hazard includes wind gusts 34 knots or greater. Boaters in small craft could be thrown overboard by suddenly higher winds and waves capsizing their vessel.
Timeline
Alert effective August 17, 2026 at 8:18 PM EDT and expires August 17, 2026 at 9:45 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 (1,177 characters here).
Similar severity timing
Same severity (high) notices issued closest in time to August 18, 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about this NWS weather alert.