Central Virginia Flooding - 7/14 and 7/15/25

Weather Headlines for Central Virginia:

• Flash Flood Emergency — The National Weather Service had to issue an extremely rare flash flood emergency for portions of Petersburg, Colonial Heights, and Dinwiddie County overnight as extreme rainfall moved very slowly through that region. Although the emergency has since been lifted, flood warnings remain in effect for the Petersburg area due to rainfall totals as high as 8” have made many roads impassible this morning.

• But Wait, There’s More — There’s another chance for excessive rainfall today, and much of the region is under a slight risk of excessive rainfall from the Weather Prediction Center. Although any thunderstorms that develop will likely be scattered, they will once again have a chance of producing extremely heavy rain, and that could cause even more flash flooding. The time frame appears to be 8pm to 2am.

In Depth:

• Due to the persistent ridge of high pressure in place over the southeastern U.S., a very warm and humid air mass remains locked firmly in place over Central Virginia. As has been the case for the last several days, thunderstorms flared up across the state yesterday evening. Since the ridge has no upper-air steering currents near its center, these storms were slow moving and dumped extremely heavy rain across much of southeastern Virginia. Parts of the Petersburg, Colonial Heights, and Hopewell areas received as much as 8 inches of rain in a matter of hours, and this led to catastrophic flash flooding across that area. The National Weather Service had to issue an extremely rare flash flood emergency for Colonial Heights and Petersburg as a result. Although the emergency has been lifted, a flood warning remains in effect, and many roads remain dangerous or impassible in Petersburg, Dinwiddie County, Colonial Heights, and southern and eastern Chesterfield County.

• That blasted ridge hasn’t gone anywhere, so expect more of the same today. High temperatures will top out around 90° across most of the area, and this should contribute enough instability to the air that we’ll be looking at more thunderstorms firing up late this afternoon into the evening. Once again, any thunderstorms that develop will be slow moving, and there is enough moisture in the air that the storms could produce very high rainfall rates (as high as 2 inches per hour in some cases). Yes, this means there is another chance of dangerous flash flooding tonight. Flood watches remain in effect across the area as a result.

• The ridge will shift somewhat during the next couple of days. Although it will still be hot and humid (with the potential for dangerous heat this weekend, stay tuned about that), our chances for heavy rainfall will likely decrease by the end of the week. There could still be scattered showers and thunderstorms, as is normal for this time of year, but these should not be quite as catastrophic as the ones we’ve had the last several days. However, low-lying areas and areas that have already seen flooding could experience some additional flooding with these storms. You should monitor your local media or products from the National Weather Service for additional information.