D.C. Downpour Tuesday Morning

The Washington D.C. metro received quite a downpour Tuesday morning, smack-dab during the first morning commute after the holiday weekend. Parts of the area picked up one to two inches of rain in an hour alone, putting rain totals this morning in just a few hours at two to three inches. Part of the reason why there have been such high rainfall accumulations is because of how slow-moving these showers have been, drifting to the north at just five miles-per-hour. You can get hourly weather readings and rain totals for the D.C. airport here.

Because of the heavy rain in a short amount of time, and in a metropolitan area (i.e., lots of concrete), a Flash Flood Warning is in effect until 11:30 a.m. Tuesday for the entire D.C. metro region. An additional accumulation of one to two inches is possible before this batch of rain finally passes northward. Excessive runoff is a concern in metro areas because of limited natural locations to absorb the water. Instead, highways and underpasses tend to be the popular water collection location until the influx flushes out of the concrete jungle. So far, there have been several motorists rescued from vehicles stranded in high water this morning, and some roads have been closed.
--Carrie