Special Marine Warning Issued for Tidal Potomac River Areas
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NWS Baltimore MD/Washington DC has issued a Special Marine Warning for the Tidal Potomac from Indian Head to Smith Point due to a strong thunderstorm with wind gusts of 34 knots or greater.
Read this weather record in 30 seconds
- Record type
- Special Marine Warning
- Affected area
- Tidal Potomac River, MD/VA
- Issued
- August 23, 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: 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 Baltimore MD/Washington DC. Effective from 2026-08-22T23:03:00-04:00 until 2026-08-23T00:00:00-04:00.
Affected Areas
Tidal Potomac from Indian Head to Cobb Island MD; Tidal Potomac from Cobb Island MD to Smith Point VA. Locations impacted include Breton Bay, Saint Clements Bay, Maryland Point, Nanjemoy Creek, Port Tobacco River, Cobb Island, Swan Point, Coltons Point, Coles Point, Mathias Point, U.S. 301 Nice Memorial Bridge, Wicomico River, White Point Beach, Popes Creek, Westmoreland State Park, Fairview Beach, Tall Timbers, and Dahlgren.
What You Should Do
Move to safe harbor immediately as gusty winds and high waves are expected.
Expected Conditions
At 11:03 PM EDT, a strong thunderstorm was located over U.S. 301 Nice Memorial Bridge, moving northeast at 25 knots. Hazard: Wind gusts 34 knots or greater. Impact: Boaters in small craft could be thrown overboard by suddenly higher winds and waves capsizing their vessel.
Timeline
Alert effective immediately on August 22, 2026 at 11:03 PM EDT and expires at midnight EDT on August 23, 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 (1,124 characters here).
Similar severity timing
Same severity (high) notices issued closest in time to August 23, 2026.
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