Officials shut down nonessential operations at 3 p.m. Monday in advance of the District’s first moderate storm risk in about a decade.

D.C., Maryland and Virginia may face a battering of winds, tornadoes, hail, torrential rain and lightning between 4 and 8 p.m. due to a severe storm expected to hit the region, according to the Capital Weather Gang. The National Weather Service implemented a tornado watch until 9 p.m. and said that power outages are likely.

“Essential services for residential students will continue,” a University alert issued at 3:02 p.m. reads. “Essential on-site staff should remain at their work locations.”

The likelihood of tornadoes within 25 miles of any location in the region is around 10 to 14 percent, “unusually high” for the region, according to Capital Weather Gang.

The University ceased activities with students from the School of Medicine and Health Sciences at 3:30 p.m.

Anthony Pohorilak, the assistant director of the Mount Vernon campus, advised residents to move cars parked in the area to the garage.

“MVC suffered some fallen trees during the last severe weather alert and I want you all to be aware of that,” Pohorilak said in an email to campus residents.

The storm warning comes just one week after torrential rain cut power to the Vern.

Federal offices closed at 3 p.m. to allow employees to return home in advance of the storm. The Smithsonian and DC Public Libraries also shuttered at 3 p.m. Metro announced on Monday that it would deploy additional resources and that it had activated its Emergency Operations Center to respond to weather-related events.

Nick Pasion contributed reporting.