Sunday night storm surprises region

The storm that popped up overnight Sunday seemed to surprise many people, including the National Weather Service.

“We didn’t have anything out for Sunday,” said Calvin Meadows of the NWS. “We had warnings out Saturday and Saturday night. … As best as I can tell, we have not had any reports of severe weather or damage in Fredericksburg for storms from last night.”

No alerts were sent out from any localities, because they receive alerts from the NWS office based in Sterling.

AccuWeather sent a severe weather alert email at 2:42 a.m. Sunday for King George, Stafford and Spotsylvania counties. The alert warned of heavy rain, wind gusts of 40 to 50 mph and small hail.

NWS had received no calls about the storm before The Free Lance-Star inquired this morning. A middle-of-the-night conversation started on our Facebook page, with some people saying they lost power in the Massaponax area. Neighbors in the Ferry Farm area said trees fell in their yards.