Tornadoes, Gusty Winds, Flooding Threaten Midwest Friday Night
This video has the latest on the severe weather situation in the Midwest.
Severe thunderstorms will bring the risks of tornadoes, straight-line winds and flooding Friday night over parts of the Midwest.
A band of severe storms will develop from Wisconsin into northern Missouri into Friday night.
The storms will develop ahead of a cold front that will be moving out of the northern Plains.
Cities in the line of fire from the storms this evening include: Minneapolis, Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison, Wis., Rockford, Ill. and Burlington, Iowa.
Storms were closing in on Sheboygan, Wis., the site of the PGA Championship during Friday afternoon.
The air mass ahead of the front is hot and very humid with dew point temperatures in the low to mid-70s.
High temperatures in some areas have been in the 90s to near 100 degrees in recent days, marking some of the hottest weather of the summer this week for the Ohio Valley and much of the southern part of the corn belt.
There is enough wind shear in the atmosphere across the region to support tornado development. The main threat will be straight-line wind damage associated with the line of storms.
We should see the storms developing rapidly this evening, and it's during the initial development of the storms that tornadoes may be generated. Once the storms transform from single supercells to squall line, the threat will change to a damaging straight-line wind situation.
The storms should begin to make eastward progress tonight, so the threat of any new major river flooding in most states. However, given the very wet weather pattern across Iowa, any rain could aggravate the river flooding situation in the Hawkeye State.
In all areas that are impacted by the front and its thunderstorms, there is the risk of flash and urban flooding.
Expert Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski contributed to the content of this story.
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