Spring storms lead to overnight tornado warnings in Virginia Beach, Chesapeake

Thursday night’s storm brewed into overnight tornado warnings and wind advisories in Chesapeake, Virginia Beach and northern North Carolina.

Winds picked up speed around 12:30 a.m., and the storm moved from the southwest to the northeast, over the ocean, around 1 a.m.

Residents in Virginia Beach and Chesapeake woke up to emergency push notifications issued at 12:48 a.m., warning about the possibility of a tornado until 1:15 a.m.

A tornado most likely did not develop.

“We don’t expect to find a tornado there,” said Larry Brown, meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Wakefield, said Friday morning.

In Chesapeake Bay, wind gusts up to 66 miles per hour were recorded around 10 p.m. and a little after 1 a.m.

A severe thunderstorm warning encompassing Norfolk, Portsmouth, Chesapeake, Virginia Beach and northern North Carolina was in effect from around 12:30 a.m. to 1 a.m.

In Norfolk, about 350 customers were without power Friday morning, according to Dominion Energy’s outage map.

Friday morning’s storms developed ahead of a low pressure system and a cold front creating a pressure gradient, Brown said. That’s how a lot of springtime storms form.

“We’re still going to have some pretty breezy conditions today and tomorrow,” Brown said, attributing the wind to a pressure gradient.

Forecasts from the weather service predict a windy afternoon and a partly sunny sky Friday. Wind may gust in excess of 30 miles per hour.

Cianna Morales, 757-957-1304, cianna.morales@virginiamedia.com