Sterling, Virginia, refers most specifically to a

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counterparts of incorporated places, suc ...

(CDP) in Loudoun County,

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...

, United States. The population of the CDP as of the

2010 United States Census The United States census of 2010 was the twenty-third United States national census. National Census Day, the reference day used for the census, was April 1, 2010. The census was taken via mail-in citizen self-reporting, with enumerators serving ...

was 27,822. The CDP boundaries are confined to a relatively small area between Virginia State Route 28 on the west and

Virginia State Route 7 Virginia State Route 7 (VA 7) is a major primary state highway and busy commuter route in northern Virginia, United States. It travels southeast from downtown Winchester to SR 400 (Washington Street) in downtown Alexandria. ...

on the northeast, excluding areas near SR 606 and the

Dulles Town Center Dulles Town Center is a two-level enclosed shopping mall in Sterling in Loudoun County, Virginia. It is located north of Washington Dulles International Airport. It is part of the Dulles Town Center census-designated place for population stat ...

. A much wider region has a preferred mailing address of "Sterling, Virginia", per the

United States Postal Service The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the ...

. Other localities included within this larger area include

Arcola Arcola may refer to: Places ; Australia * Arcola, Grafton, a heritage-listed house in New South Wales ;Canada * Arcola, Saskatchewan, a town in the Province of Saskatchewan * Arcola Airport, an airport in the Province of Saskatchewan ;England * ...

, Cascades,

Countryside In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are desc ...

, Dulles,

, Oak Grove, and

Sugarland Run Sugarland Run is a planned community and census-designated place in Loudoun County, Virginia, United States. The population at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census was 11,799. In 2020, it was estimated to be 12,956. Sugarland Run is part of ...

. The "Greater Sterling" region includes part of

Washington Dulles International Airport Washington Dulles International Airport , typically referred to as Dulles International Airport, Dulles Airport, Washington Dulles, or simply Dulles ( ), is an international airport in the Eastern United States, located in Loudoun County and F ...

and the former

AOL AOL (stylized as Aol., formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City. It is a brand marketed by the current incarnation of Yahoo! Inc. ...

corporate headquarters. Greater Sterling is also home to the

National Weather Service The National Weather Service (NWS) is an agency of the United States federal government that is tasked with providing weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather, and other weather-related products to organizations and the public for the ...

Weather Forecast Office The National Weather Service (NWS) is an agency of the United States federal government that is tasked with providing weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather, and other weather-related products to organizations and the public for the ...

LWX (serving the Baltimore–Washington Metropolitan Area), as well as the Sterling Field Support Center, the

test, research, and evaluation center for weather instruments. The following includes information covering both the CDP and the wider "Greater Sterling" region.

History

In the beginning of 1962, large farms made up the of what today is called Sterling Park. Route7, also known as Leesburg Pike, bordered what used to be Jesse Hughes's dairy farm. Hughes arrived in Loudoun County in the early 20th century and was a longtime head of the county's Democrats. Fred Franklin Tavenner, who was somewhat related to

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading int ...

, operated vast stretches of Sterling Farm at the southwest fringes of Sterling Park. Tavenner had purchased land from Albert Shaw Jr., who had inherited it from his father Albert B. Shaw, editor and publisher of the American '' Review of Reviews''. One of Shaw's spreads, totaling , was called "The Experimental Farm" because it was one of the first area farms to receive a U.S. grant for applying "scientific methods", as Tavenner called them. According to Tavenner, refugees from the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

ran the farm while Shaw remained in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Dulles International Airport and the extension of water and sewer lines to the airport began to change the landscape when construction started in 1959. Land prices rose from an average to . During the same year, Marvin T. Broyhill Jr. and his father made plans to develop land in the airport area under the company M.T. Broyhill & Sons Corporation. In late 1961, they decided to buy and incorporated Sterling Park Development Corporation with his son Marvin T. Broyhill as president, and cousin Thomas J. Broyhill as vice president. Between April 28 and December 29 of 1961, they purchased in 14parcels for $2,115,784. For the Hughes farm along Route7, they paid . M.T. Broyhill & Sons Corporation learned where the right-of-way for Route28 (Sully Road) would be, and hoped to develop Sterling Park on both sides of it, so they would not have to build a road through Sterling Park. However, Powell B. Harrison, who was instrumental in planning Route28, insisted that the road be kept generally free of development, for easy access to the airport. Therefore, the Broyhills developed Sterling Park east of Route28, and had to build their own through road, today's Sterling Boulevard. Marvin Broyhill, Jr.'s marketing thoughts were to "put together a prefabricated home marketed by U.S. Steel and sell it for about $17,000 $3,000 less than a comparable Fairfax County home ... All homes to have airconditioning. Homeowners to have access without membership fees to golf and tennis courts and pools." Air conditioning was uncommon in homes of that price range at the time. Broyhill's ideas, except for free golf, are realities today. As selling points, Loudoun's taxes were less than half of Fairfax's taxes, Washington was a half-hour away, and the elder Broyhill had envisioned commuter trains on the Washington and Old Dominion Railroad (which, since 1951, had carried only freight). The railroad tracks were the southern boundary of the present Sterling Park. Initially, Sterling Park residents had to be of the "

Caucasian race The Caucasian race (also Caucasoid or Europid, Europoid) is an obsolete racial classification of human beings based on a now-disproven theory of biological race. The ''Caucasian race'' was historically regarded as a biological taxon which, de ...

." No board member or speaker before the board raised an objection to the clause, a common one in the United States before the 1960s, when discriminatory housing was outlawed by the

Fair Housing Act The Civil Rights Act of 1968 () is a landmark law in the United States signed into law by United States President Lyndon B. Johnson during the King assassination riots. Titles II through VII comprise the Indian Civil Rights Act, which appl ...

, which was enacted as a follow-up to the

Civil Rights Act of 1964 The Civil Rights Act of 1964 () is a landmark civil rights and labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. It prohibits unequal application of voter registration requi ...

. No

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

family moved into Sterling Park until August 1966, when the illegality of the clause became apparent. By then, the population of "The Park", as it had come to be known, had reached 5,000. The

Broad Run Bridge and Tollhouse The Broad Run Bridge and Tollhouse were built for the Leesburg Turnpike Company in Loudoun County, Virginia. The stone bridge, built about 1820, was a permanent replacement for a series of wood bridges at the location, with at least three that h ...

Vestal's Gap Road and Lanesville Historic District Vestal's Gap Road and Lanesville Historic District is a national historic district located in Claude Moore Park at Sterling, Loudoun County, Virginia. It encompasses 1 contributing building and 1 contributing structure. They are "Lanesville ...

, and Arcola Elementary School are listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

Geography

According to the

USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, ...

, Sterling has an average elevation of above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardis ...

. The original center of Sterling is located at 39°00'22.4"N 77°25'43.0"W. Sterling is part of the

Chesapeake Bay The Chesapeake Bay ( ) is the largest estuary in the United States. The Bay is located in the Mid-Atlantic region and is primarily separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Delmarva Peninsula (including the parts: the Eastern Shore of Maryland / ...

watershed, and Greater Sterling borders the

Potomac River The Potomac River () drains the Mid-Atlantic United States, flowing from the Potomac Highlands into Chesapeake Bay. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map. Retrieved Augu ...

Communities

* Broad Run Farms is a residential area north of Virginia State Route 7 and 28 that was founded in 1952. It shares the ZIP code of 20165 which uses "Sterling" or "Potomac Falls" as recommended addresses. As an area much older than the surrounding recent growth, it has features unique to the region, including large lots, highly wooded old-growth trees, a wide variety of housing and a voluntary civic association. The

forms its northern border, and Broad Run its western. A U.S. Senate lawyer bought the Miskel farm in 1950 and later subdivided it, founding Broad Run Farms. The

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polici ...

Skirmish at Miskel Farm The Skirmish at Miskel Farm, also known as the Fight at Miskel Farm or Gunfight at Miskel Farm, was a skirmish during the American Civil War. It took place April 1, 1863, near Broad Run in Loudoun County, Virginia, between Mosby's Rangers an ...

propelled Confederate Captain John S. Mosby to fame. The community banded together in 1995, with state and county help, to finance and install its own sewer service, in part through an added property tax. The lien was paid off several years early and the tax has now been retired. * Cascades is a planned community within the 20165 ZIP code. The area is located in the northeasternmost part of Loudoun County, between the Fairfax County line to the east, the Potomac River to the north, and Algonkian Parkway to the south. Located just north of Route7, along the Algonkian Parkway, approximately 6500 homes comprise the community. *

is a housing development in Sterling (20165 ZIP code), bounded by the

to the north and by Route7 (

Leesburg Pike Virginia State Route 7 (VA 7) is a major primary state highway and busy commuter route in northern Virginia, United States. It travels southeast from downtown Winchester to SR 400 (Washington Street) in downtown Alexandria. Its ...

) to the south. This subdivision was conceived in the middle 1970s when of farmland was divided in preparation for a planned housing development. Homes construction began in 1983 and continued through 1991. Today, Countryside covers about and consists of 2,539homes, which includes 1,269single-family homes, 1,168

town home A townhouse, townhome, town house, or town home, is a type of terraced housing. A modern townhouse is often one with a small footprint on multiple floors. In a different British usage, the term originally referred to any type of city residence ...

s, and 102condominium units. Countryside contains a shopping center anchored by

Safeway Safeway is an American supermarket chain founded by Marion Barton Skaggs in April 1915 in American Falls, Idaho. The chain provides grocery items, food and general merchandise and features a variety of specialty departments, such as bakery, del ...

and CVS. The shopping center is within the mixed-use Countryside Commercial and Professional Center, which contains various office buildings. Countryside is governed by the CountrySide Proprietary, the community's homeowners association. * Dulles is an unincorporated area in Loudoun County, with ZIP code 20166. The headquarters of Orbital ATK (on

Warp Drive A warp drive or a drive enabling space warp is a fictional superluminal spacecraft propulsion system in many science fiction works, most notably ''Star Trek'', and a subject of ongoing physics research. The general concept of "warp drive" was ...

), ODIN Technologies, the former headquarters of

MCI Inc. MCI, Inc. (subsequently Worldcom and MCI WorldCom) was a telecommunications company. For a time, it was the second largest long-distance telephone company in the United States, after AT&T. Worldcom grew largely by acquiring other telecommuni ...

, and AOL are located in Dulles. The usage of Dulles as a community name began in the mid-1980s when Loudoun County economic development officer Pam Treadwell successfully lobbied the

to allow Sterling businesses and residents to use Dulles as an alternate address.

is a census-designated place located within Dulles, which contains the

shopping mall. * Lowes Island is an advertised portion of the legal subdivision of Cascades, but is not a legal subdivision itself. While newer residents use the city address "Potomac Falls, VA", the post office will recognize either "Potomac Falls, VA" or "Sterling, VA" as a correct mailing address. Almost 50% of the Lowes Island geography is occupied by club grounds and a golf course. * Potomac Falls is another name for the unincorporated area along the Potomac River in the northernmost portion of Sterling with the ZIP code of 20165, bordering

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean t ...

. It contains the census-designated places of Countryside, Cascades, and Lowes Island. The name for Potomac Falls came from a competition to name the second new post office in Sterling. Alternately called Potomac Falls or Sterling, the village consists of the communities of Glen Heather, Calvert's Glen, Cascades, Countryside, Lowes Island, Rivercrest, Potomac Hunt, Great Falls Forest and Great Falls Chase. Development of Potomac Falls began in the late 1980s, and is essentially complete today. Potomac Falls borders Great Falls and

Fairfax County Fairfax County, officially the County of Fairfax, is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is part of Northern Virginia and borders both the city of Alexandria and Arlington County and forms part of the suburban ring of Washington, D.C. ...

to the southeast and has several shopping areas, schools, and community centers. Potomac Falls is also home to three 18-hole golf courses including Trump National Golf Club and is home to the

Potomac Falls High School Potomac Falls High School is a public secondary school in Sterling, Virginia unincorporated area in Loudoun County. The school is part of the Loudoun County Public Schools system. History Potomac Falls High School opened in 1997. It was the first ...

Panthers. * Sterling Park is a portion of Sterling with the ZIP code of 20164. The land where Sterling Park was built was mainly made up of a few very large farms. When construction of Dulles International Airport began in 1959, land prices began to rise. In 1961, Marvin T. Broyhill Sr. saw this as a great investment opportunity and decided to buy the that now make up Sterling Park . Construction of homes priced $14,800 to $22,500 was completed by 1967. Sterling Park was one of the first planned communities built in eastern Loudoun County and was a popular place for government workers to settle with their families outside Washington, D.C. Sterling Park also contains a variety of businesses, churches, parks, a

community center Community centres, community centers, or community halls are public locations where members of a community tend to gather for group activities, social support, public information, and other purposes. They may sometimes be open for the whole c ...

, a semi-private golf club with schools, tennis courts, and two swimming pools. It is the home of the Park View High School Patriots. *

is a portion of Sterling with the ZIP code of 20164. Built in the 1970s in the style of Sterling Park, its shopping center consists of a

7-Eleven 7-Eleven, Inc., stylized as 7-ELEVE, is a multinational chain of retail convenience stores, headquartered in Dallas, Texas. The chain was founded in 1927 as an ice house storefront in Dallas. It was named Tote'm Stores between 1928 and 1946. A ...

store and gas station,

Pizza Hut Pizza Hut is an American multinational restaurant chain and international franchise founded in 1958 in Wichita, Kansas by Dan and Frank Carney. They serve their signature pan pizza and other dishes including pasta, breadsticks and desse ...

, Panda West, High Up Food Mart, and a laundromat
which burned down on January 10, 2008
. The housing around Sugarland Elementary School consists of town houses, apartments and single-family homes, while the housing around Meadowland Elementary is predominantly single-family homes. and over of walking paths. There is also a community swimming pool and

playground A playground, playpark, or play area is a place designed to provide an environment for children that facilitates play, typically outdoors. While a playground is usually designed for children, some are designed for other age groups, or people ...

situated across from the lake. The swimming pool is by , with a large diving well and a separate baby pool. Sugarland Run also is a geographical feeder to Dominion High School.

Economy

Sterling is home to many businesses and also serves as branch offices for many major companies. According t
Manta
the following companies, with annual revenues of $20million or more, have headquarters in Sterling, Virginia: Neustar and Electronic Instrumentation and Technology. Companies that have a branch office or headquarters in Sterling, with a total number of employees over 1,000 or more are as follows:

Alcatel-Lucent Alcatel–Lucent S.A. () was a French–American global telecommunications equipment company, headquartered in Boulogne-Billancourt, France. It was formed in 2006 by the merger of France-based Alcatel and U.S.-based Lucent, the latter being a su ...

, Geo Trans, HR Solutions LLC, M.C. Dean, Inc., National Electronics Warranty Corp, Service Companies Inc, and Orbital Science. Federal agencies with offices in Sterling include U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, and the

Drug Enforcement Administration The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA; ) is a United States federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Justice tasked with combating drug trafficking and distribution within the U.S. It is the lead agency for domestic en ...

. At one time,

Atlantic Coast Airlines Atlantic Coast Airlines (ACA) was an airline based in the United States owned by Atlantic Coast Holdings, Inc. It operated as United Express for United Airlines and Delta Connection for Delta Air Lines. It was headquartered in the Dulles area o ...

had its headquarters in Sterling.

Education

Currently, Sterling is home to three public high schools serving grades 9-12: Dominion High School, Park View High School, and

. Sterling also has three public middle schools serving grades 6-8:

River Bend Middle School Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) is a branch of the Loudoun County, Virginia, United States government, and administers public schools in the county. LCPS's headquarters is located at 21000 Education Court in Ashburn, an unincorporated se ...

, Seneca Ridge Middle School, and Sterling Middle School. There are also twelve public elementary schools serving grades PK-5: Algonkian Elementary School, Countryside Elementary School, Forest Grove Elementary School, Guilford Elementary School, Horizon Elementary School, Lowes Island Elementary School, Meadlowland Elementary School, Potowmack Elementary School, Rolling Ridge Elementary School, Sterling Elementary School, Sugarland Elementary School, and Sully Elementary School.

Higher education

Northern Virginia Community College Northern Virginia Community College (NVCC; informally known as NOVA) is a public community college composed of six campuses and four centers in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C. Northern Virginia Community College is the third- ...

has a Loudoun campus on Harry F. Byrd Highway (Route7). Nearby, in Ashburn,

The George Washington University , mottoeng = "God is Our Trust" , established = , type = Private federally chartered research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.8 billion (2022) , presid ...

has it
Virginia Science and Technology Campus
established in 1991.

Transportation

The main arterial roads serving Sterling are Route28, West Church Road, South Sterling Boulevard,

, Algonkian Parkway, Potomac View Road, Waxpool Road, and Cascades Parkway.

Recreation

Claude Moore Park occupies in Sterling and offers activities for people of all ages, with three main areas. Claude Moore Recreation Center contains an Olympic-size indoor pool, a children's pool with water features, an exercise area, gymnasium, and several event and meeting rooms. The sportplex includes baseball and softball fields and the nature area includes hiking trails and the park. The last known undeveloped section of the historic Vestal's Gap Road runs across the park. Originally a trail first used by Native Americans, it was a major route for settlers between

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...

and the

Shenandoah Valley The Shenandoah Valley () is a geographic valley and cultural region of western Virginia and the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. The valley is bounded to the east by the Blue Ridge Mountains, to the west by the eastern front of the Ridg ...

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of ...

used the road frequently in his travels between Mount Vernon and the western frontier. General Braddock's troops, including

Daniel Boone Daniel Boone (September 26, 1820) was an American pioneer and frontiersman whose exploits made him one of the first folk heroes of the United States. He became famous for his exploration and settlement of Kentucky, which was then beyond the we ...

, traveled Vestal's Gap Road during the

French and Indian War The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was a theater of the Seven Years' War, which pitted the North American colonies of the British Empire against those of the French, each side being supported by various Native American tribes. At the st ...

. Sterling offers the following parks and clubs as recreational areas: Algonkian Regional Park, Dulles Golf Center& Sports Park, and Sterling Golf Club.

Public works and services

Fire protection Fire protection is the study and practice of mitigating the unwanted effects of potentially destructive fires. It involves the study of the behaviour, compartmentalisation, suppression and investigation of fire and its related emergencies, as we ...

services are provided by the Sterling Volunteer Fire Company. Technical Rescue and

Emergency Medical Services Emergency medical services (EMS), also known as ambulance services or paramedic services, are emergency services that provide urgent pre-hospital treatment and stabilisation for serious illness and injuries and transport to definitive care. ...

are provided by the Sterling Volunteer Rescue Squad. Both are non-governmental 501(c)

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

organizations that operate as a part of the Loudoun County Combined Fire and Rescue System, and share three stations: one in Sterling Park, one in Potomac Falls, and one in Kincora at the northern end of Pacific Boulevard. The Loudoun County Sheriff's Office and the Virginia State Police provide law enforcement.

Notable people

Famous people who were born in or who lived in Sterling include: * United States President

James Buchanan James Buchanan Jr. ( ; April 23, 1791June 1, 1868) was an American lawyer, diplomat and politician who served as the 15th president of the United States from 1857 to 1861. He previously served as secretary of state from 1845 to 1849 and repr ...

had his summer home near what is now Ruritan Circle. * Hilarie Burton, actress from the television programs '' One Tree Hill'' and '' White Collar'' * Billy King, former general manager for the

Brooklyn Nets The Brooklyn Nets are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The Nets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference. The ...

of the NBA *

Patton Oswalt Patton Peter Oswalt (born January 27, 1969) is an American stand-up comedian, actor and writer. He is known as Spence Olchin in the sitcom '' The King of Queens'' (1998–2007) and for narrating the sitcom '' The Goldbergs'' (2013–present) as ...

, stand-up comedian * Pg. 99, a screamo band formed in 1999 * Conor Shanosky, a former United States men's national under-20 soccer team football player, who operated commonly as midfielder and defender, who was a D.C. United player; currently plays for

Richmond Kickers Richmond Kickers is an American professional soccer club based in Richmond, Virginia. The Kickers compete as a member of USL League One (USL-1). The club was established in 1993, and began play that same year as a United States Interregional ...

Austin St. John Jason Lawrence Geiger (born September 17, 1974), professionally known as Austin St. John, is an American actor, martial artist, and paramedic best known for his portrayal of Jason Lee Scott in the ''Power Rangers'' franchise. Early life Austin S ...

, actor and martial artist from the '' Mighty Morphin Power Rangers'' television series, who left acting to work as a paramedic and study martial arts *

Cameron Whitten Cameron Whitten (born April 8, 1991) is an American community activist best known for advocacy on affordable housing, racial justice, and LGBT rights. Early life and education Whitten grew up in Sterling, Virginia, outside Washington, D.C. He ...

, community activist

Climate

The climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers and generally mild to cool winters. According to the

Köppen Climate Classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, nota ...

system, Sterling has a

humid subtropical climate A humid subtropical climate is a zone of climate characterized by hot and humid summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between latitudes 25° and 40° ...

, abbreviated "Cfa" on climate maps.Climate Summary for Sterling, Virginia
/ref>

References

External links

*
Dulles International Airport History
{{Authority control Census-designated places in Loudoun County, Virginia Census-designated places in Virginia Washington metropolitan area Virginia populated places on the Potomac River