Flash Flood Watch Starts Wednesday Night

DC and Northern Virginia will be under a flash flood watch from midnight through Thursday night, the National Weather Service has announced.

Some parts of the region have already gotten several inches of rain in the past week—primarily from the remnants of Tropical Storm Andrea last Friday and additional rain Monday.

“With the ground already saturated …  only an inch of rainfall in an hour could produce flash flooding of streams and low-lying area,” according to the National Weather Service.

The thunderstorms and possible derecho coming Thursday could dump up to three inches of rain before the storm systems move through, forecasters say.

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"The brunt of the storm will hit Thursday. I'm sure we'll see some limbs and trees down," Calvin Meadows, a meteorological technician in the National Weather Service's Sterling office, told Patch Wednesday morning.

Weather Timeline

Forecasters predicted scattered thunderstorms could start around 10 p.m. Wednesday with a 50 percent chance of rain overnight. The rain and thunderstorms may diminish a bit early Thursday morning before returning Thursday afternoon. The strongest thunderstorms may be during Thursday evening’s commute.

Temperatures in the mid-70s and partly cloudy skies should dominate on Friday across the region.