The Memorial Day weekend could end with a bang as a strong cold front sweeps scattered thunderstorms through the Washington region this afternoon and evening.
Washington
Severe storms could hit D.C. area Monday afternoon and evening
Storms may tend to be hit-or-miss rather than the type that blasts the whole area. While some spots could see little to no rainfall, areas that experience the heaviest downpours could see up to 1 to 2 inches in an hour or two.
The main culprit is the same low-pressure area responsible for major severe weather outbreaks in the Plains and Midwest over the weekend. It’s dragging a cold front through the area that will collide with warm and humid air, inciting storms.
The main source of uncertainty for storm coverage and intensity is the cloud cover over the region, which may decrease the amount of heating. That could reduce fuel for storms somewhat.
Still, at least scattered strong to severe storms are a good bet into the evening.
- Potential storm timing: Midafternoon through evening. Ending near or just after sunset.
- Chance of rain: About 60 percent for any given location.
- Storm duration: Half-hour to an hour, but more than one storm may pass.
- Most likely effects: Heavy rain, dangerous lightning, isolated damaging wind gusts, a brief tornado or two.
- Possible impacts: Multiple tornadoes, isolated large hail and spotty flash flooding.
The severe weather setup features a vigorous cold front approaching from the west and an atmospheric disturbance that will focus uplift of air across the DMV later this afternoon.
There will also be an attendant increase in wind shear, which is a change of speed and direction with height that helps shape powerful thunderstorms. Meanwhile, near the ground, winds from the south will continue to usher in warmth and moisture, providing storm fuel and making the air mass unstable.
One confounding factor is early-morning cloud cover, which is extensive and multilayered, due to the remnants of a storm complex to the west. Until clouds thin, the ground will not be heated as strongly, potentially delaying full destabilization.
Stronger heating is expected this afternoon, coincident with an increase in wind shear. Convective storms should percolate as temperatures rise and the front approaches, becoming more widespread by late afternoon.
Where these storms predominantly likely cluster and focus may vary. For instance, the NAM weather model favors spots nearer the bay and southern Maryland. Some of this activity is already ongoing in southeastern Virginia. It’s cousin the HRRR weather model begins initiating storms farther west, including central Maryland and the District.
The storm mode is likely to be small clusters (multicells) and short bowing segments or arcs — a few rotating supercells are also possible. Torrential rain and lightning are likely with any activity. So is possibly strong to severe wind gusts called downbursts and hail to the size of quarters. Even a brief tornado or two could drop.
CWG will monitor the situation carefully through the afternoon and evening and provide updates in this article.
Jason Samenow contributed to this report.
Washington
Widespread Verizon outage prompts emergency alerts in Washington, New York City
Verizon said on Wednesday that its wireless service was suffering an outage impacting cellular data and voice services.
The nation’s largest wireless carrier said that its “engineers are engaged and are working to identify and solve the issue quickly.”
Verizon’s statement came after a swath of social media comments directed at Verizon, with users saying that their mobile devices were showing no bars of service or “SOS,” indicating a lack of connection.
Verizon, which has more than 146 million customers, appears to have started experiencing services issues around 12:00 p.m. ET, according to comments on social media site X.
Two hours later, Verizon posted an update on social media, saying that its engineers were “continuing to address today’s service interruptions,” but did not say if a specific reason for the outage had been identified or when it could be resolved.
“We understand the impact this has on your day and remain committed to resolving this as quickly as possible,” the company said.
Despite those efforts, shortly after 4:00 p.m. ET, Verizon issued a third statement that contained little new information. The company said teams were “on the ground actively working to fix today’s service issue.”
Users had initially reported problems with Verizon’s competitors, T-Mobile and AT&T, as well. But both companies said they were not experiencing any service problems.
“T-Mobile’s network is keeping our customers connected, and we’ve confirmed that our network is operating normally and as expected,” a spokesperson told NBC News. “However, due to Verizon’s reported outage, our customers may not be able to reach someone with Verizon service at this time.”
A spokeswoman for AT&T also said the company’s network was “operating normally.”
In Washington, D.C., the District’s official emergency notification system sent out a message to residents saying that the Verizon outage was “nationwide.”
“If you have an emergency and can not connect using your Verizon Wireless device, please connect using a device from another carrier, a landline, or go to a police district or fire station to report the emergency,” the AlertDC system told recipients.
New York City’s Office of Emergency Management also said it was aware of the outage without mentioning Verizon by name. The city said it was “working closely with our partners” to review the outage and “assess any potential effects on city agencies & essential services.”
Washington
Vance to meet Danish and Greenlandic officials in Washington on Wednesday
People walk along a street in downtown of Nuuk, Greenland, on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026.
Evgeniy Maloletka/AP
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Evgeniy Maloletka/AP
NUUK, Greenland — Along the narrow, snow-covered main street in Greenland’s capital, international journalists and camera crews stop passersby every few meters (feet) asking them for their thoughts on a crisis which Denmark’s prime minister has warned could potentially trigger the end of NATO.

Greenland is at the center of a geopolitical storm as U.S. President Donald Trump is insisting he wants to own the island — and the residents of its capital Nuuk say it is not for sale. Trump said he wants to control Greenland at any cost and the White House has not ruled out taking the island by force.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance will meet Denmark’s foreign minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and his Greenlandic counterpart Vivian Motzfeldt in Washington on Wednesday to discuss the Arctic island, which is a semiautonomous territory of the United States’ NATO ally Denmark.
Tuuta Mikaelsen, a 22-year-old student, told The Associated Press in Nuuk that she hoped American officials would get the message to “back off.”
Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen told a news conference in the Danish capital Copenhagen on Tuesday that, “if we have to choose between the United States and Denmark here and now, we choose Denmark. We choose NATO. We choose the Kingdom of Denmark. We choose the EU.”

Greenland is strategically important because as climate change causes the ice to melt, it opens up the possibility of shorter trade routes to Asia. That also could make it easier to extract and transport untapped deposits of critical minerals which are needed for computers and phones.
Trump also said he wants the island to expand America’s security and has cited what he says is the threat from Russian and Chinese ships as a reason to control it.
But both experts and Greenlanders question that claim.
“The only Chinese I see is when I go to the fast food market,” Lars Vintner, a heating engineer told AP. He said he frequently goes sailing and hunting and has never seen Russian or Chinese ships.
His friend, Hans Nørgaard, agreed, adding “what has come out of the mouth of Donald Trump about all these ships is just fantasy.”
Denmark has said the U.S. — which already has a military presence — can boost its bases on Greenland. For that reason, “security is just a cover,” Vintner said, suggesting Trump actually wants to own the island to make money from its untapped natural resources.
Nørgaard told AP he filed a police complaint in Nuuk against Trump’s “aggressive” behavior because, he said, American officials are threatening the people of Greenland and NATO. He suggested Trump was using the ships as a pretext to further American expansion.

“Donald Trump would like to have Greenland, (Russian President Vladimir) Putin would like Ukraine and (Chinese President) Xi Jinping would like to have Taiwan,” Nørgaard said.
Mikaelsen, the student, said Greenlanders benefit from being part of Denmark which provides free health care, education and payments during study.
“I don’t want the U.S. to take that away from us,” she said.
Ahead of Wednesday’s meeting, Naaja Nathanielsen, Greenland’s minister for business and mineral resources said it’s “unfathomable” that the United States is discussing taking over a NATO ally and urged the Trump administration to listen to voices from the Arctic island’s people.
Washington
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