Photo by Joseph D’Angelo

It’s a muggy, if sunny, hot mess outside this afternoon, but it looks as though that’s going to change rapidly. The National Weather Service has issued two alerts for the D.C. metro area this afternoon. A Severe Thunderstorm Watch is in effect as of 1:25 p.m., and continues through to 9 p.m. Along with rain, conditions are favorable for lightning, hail of up to two inches in diameter, and wind gusts of up to 70 mph.

And thanks to the gathering storm, there’s also a Flash Flood Watch in effect starting at 5 p.m. Forecasters expect tonight’s storm to be rather slow moving, so heavy rainfall of up more than two inches per hour is possible.