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Washington Flood Watch Triggers Outages, BWI Ground Stop

7/7/2026

37 6 Full Breakdown

Summary

Story summary

The Weather Service issued a flood watch for Washington, D.C., Maryland and northern Virginia, warning of flash flooding and 70 mph wind gusts Monday.
Storms downed trees and power lines in the Baltimore metro, leaving 24,500 customers without power and causing a ground stop at BWI.
The watch predicts rainfall of 2–3 inches per hour, temperatures in the 80s-90s, a heat index up to 101 °F, and thunderstorms through Monday and week.

History

Historical Context

After the Mississippi River Commission was created in 1879, the 1927 Great Mississippi Flood—covering over 27,000 sq mi and displacing roughly 630,000 people—prompted the federal Flood Control Act and a massive levee-building program overseen by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. That legacy shapes today’s Maryland flood watch, which warns of 2–3 inches per hour.

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Story summary

The Weather Service issued a flood watch for Washington, D.C., Maryland and northern Virginia, warning of flash flooding and 70 mph wind gusts Monday.
Storms downed trees and power lines in the Baltimore metro, leaving 24,500 customers without power and causing a ground stop at BWI.
The watch predicts rainfall of 2–3 inches per hour, temperatures in the 80s-90s, a heat index up to 101 °F, and thunderstorms through Monday and week.

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