From Norfolk Flooding to Portsmouth’s Winter Wonderland

This week on Tidewater Talk, we covered a wide mix of Coastal Virginia stories, from another round of flash flooding in Norfolk to West Nile virus turning up in mosquitoes across multiple Virginia Beach neighborhoods. We also talked through a headline-making lawsuit involving a former Norfolk police officer and her privacy complaint against the department, and then shifted into one of our favorite lanes: the strange and memorable corners of local history. This week’s “Strange Tidewater” spotlight was Portsmouth’s long-running Winter Wonderland animatronic Christmas display, a community-loved holiday attraction with roots going back decades and a story that includes fire, restoration, and a second life at the Portsmouth Art & Cultural Center.We also shared the latest local forecast, with comfortable mid-80s temperatures, storm chances building later in the week, and an eye on two tropical disturbances in the Atlantic. To wrap things up, we swapped a few Tidewater tips for the weekend, including Maker Fest Portsmouth, the East Coast Surfing Championships, a “dive-in” screening of Finding Nemo at Ocean Breeze Waterpark, and Moth Night at Norfolk Botanical Garden. Plus, we dropped a new local history trivia clue centered on the Great Dismal Swamp.