More severe storms to hammer Midwest, Northeast ahead of pattern change
By
Alex Sosnowski, AccuWeather senior meteorologist
Updated Aug 13, 2021 7:43 PM EDT
As cooler, less humid air advances to the southeast and clashes with hot and humid air in place, severe thunderstorms will continue to erupt over the Midwest and Northeast through late this week.
As has been the case nearly every afternoon this week, severe storms rolled through portions of the Midwest and Northeast on Wednesday. At one point early Thursday morning, more than 1 million utility customers were without power over the Midwest alone with more than 850,000 in the dark in Michigan, according to PowerOutage.us. As of Friday morning, more than 750,000 were without power from the Great Lakes to the Ohio Valley and the central Appalachians.
Much of the Eastern and Southern states have also been sweltering in an August heat wave this week. The combination of heat, humidity, sunshine and light winds has pushed AccuWeather RealFeel® Temperatures to well above 100 F for a few hours each day in many of the major cities in the region.
When combined with the heat in the Northwest, over 158 million people, roughly half of the U.S. population, were under an excessive heat watch or warning or a heat advisory on Thursday, according to The National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center.
Some daily record highs are forecast to be challenged in the Northeast through the end of this week. Washington, D.C., and Baltimore both neared record highs of 99 on Thursday afternoon, though both fell short. Baltimore reached 98 degrees, with Washington, D.C., "only" reaching 96. The record in the nation's capital was set in 2006, while in Baltimore, the record dates way back to 1900.
Baltimore is forecast to tie its record high of 99 set in 2002 on Friday.
There were a few records that fell on Thursday. Dulles International Airport in Chantilly, Virginia, just 26 miles from Downtown Washington, D.C., was able to reach 100 degrees, breaking its old record of 98 set back in 2002. La Guardia Airport, New York, tied its 2016 record of 98 degrees, which had also been set back in 2002.
In portions of the Midwest, the heat has not been quite as intense as it was in the mid-Atlantic and Southern states, but RealFeel Temperatures have still climbed well into the 90s to near 100 for several days before thunderstorms developed.
In the wake of the approaching cool front, temperatures are forecast to be slashed by 10-20 degrees on average, but a marked drop in humidity will also bring more comfortable conditions for millions.
The cooler air is forecast to spread over much of the Midwest into the end of the week. It will then arrive across portions of the central Plains, the Ohio Valley and much of the Northeast this weekend.
Highs ranging from the upper 80s, 90s and even near 100 from much of this week are forecast to be swapped with highs in the 70s and 80s for the most part. Nighttime lows projected to dip into the 40s over part of the Upper Midwest and central and northern Appalachians to the lower 60s over the Ohio Valley and the upper 60s around the Chesapeake Bay this weekend.
However, the change to cooler weather will come at a cost as more rounds of severe weather are expected to ignite.
This map depicts outages as reported by PowerOutage.us as of early Thursday morning, Aug. 12, 2021.
High winds triggered by severe weather are what led to the widespread power outages into Thursday. More than 400 incidents of high winds and/or wind damage were reported by the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) Wednesday and Wednesday night.
Floyd Stephen, 53, was killed when a tree fell on his vehicle in Washington County, Pennsylvania, during strong thunderstorm winds Wednesday afternoon, according to WPIX. A passenger was taken to the hospital with injuries. There were four reports of tornadoes in the Midwest with at least one confirmed by an NWS spotter near Mineral Point, Wisconsin, on Wednesday evening.
A 13-year-old boy died on Friday after he and six other people were hospitalized after a lightning strike at Orchard Beach in the Bronx Thursday, according to the The Associated Press. The conditions of the other six are currently unknown.
Another injury was reported in Ohio, when a tree fell on a vehicle in Madison County.
The potential for at least heavy, gusty storms will exist into Friday evening from central Oklahoma to coastal Maine, a corridor stretching across more than 1,500 miles.
"The greatest risk of severe thunderstorms with high winds and AccuWeather Local StormMax™ wind gusts to 75 mph are forecast to extend from northern Arkansas to Vermont, western Massachusetts, western Connecticut and the New York City area," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Brett Anderson said.
Winds this strong can easily break large tree limbs, knock down power lines and cause minor property damage. Truck drivers could face dangerous travel conditions as winds will be high enough, where gusts blow across highways, to threaten flipping high-profile vehicles.
People are urged to move indoors and away from windows at the first rumble of thunder. Where thunder can be heard, there is the risk of a lightning strike. Tents, picnic pavilions and golf carts do not offer adequate protection from lightning.
Sudden poor visibility in torrential downpours can be another danger motorists will encounter in addition to flash flooding. A small number of tornadoes cannot be ruled out into Thursday evening as well.
CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APP
The forward motion of the leading edge of the cooler, less humid air is forecast to slow and stall over the weekend from the southern Plains to the interior South and along the lower part of the mid-Atlantic coast.
"Near where the front stalls, the reduction in humidity levels will be more gradual and may not occur much at all. This stalled front may then set up a zone for repeating showers and thunderstorms from this weekend to well into next week," Anderson said.
A complicating factor next week will be moisture from Fred, which is forecast to roll across the Southeastern states with heavy rainfall. The proximity of the front and tropical moisture could unleash excessive rainfall and raise the risk of flooding across the southern Appalachians, the central Appalachians and possibly areas closer to the Atlantic coast as next week progresses.
Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier, Spectrum, FuboTV, Philo, and Verizon Fios.
Report a Typo
News / Severe Weather
More severe storms to hammer Midwest, Northeast ahead of pattern change
By Alex Sosnowski, AccuWeather senior meteorologist
Updated Aug 13, 2021 7:43 PM EDT
As cooler, less humid air advances to the southeast and clashes with hot and humid air in place, severe thunderstorms will continue to erupt over the Midwest and Northeast through late this week.
As has been the case nearly every afternoon this week, severe storms rolled through portions of the Midwest and Northeast on Wednesday. At one point early Thursday morning, more than 1 million utility customers were without power over the Midwest alone with more than 850,000 in the dark in Michigan, according to PowerOutage.us. As of Friday morning, more than 750,000 were without power from the Great Lakes to the Ohio Valley and the central Appalachians.
Much of the Eastern and Southern states have also been sweltering in an August heat wave this week. The combination of heat, humidity, sunshine and light winds has pushed AccuWeather RealFeel® Temperatures to well above 100 F for a few hours each day in many of the major cities in the region.
When combined with the heat in the Northwest, over 158 million people, roughly half of the U.S. population, were under an excessive heat watch or warning or a heat advisory on Thursday, according to The National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center.
Some daily record highs are forecast to be challenged in the Northeast through the end of this week. Washington, D.C., and Baltimore both neared record highs of 99 on Thursday afternoon, though both fell short. Baltimore reached 98 degrees, with Washington, D.C., "only" reaching 96. The record in the nation's capital was set in 2006, while in Baltimore, the record dates way back to 1900.
Baltimore is forecast to tie its record high of 99 set in 2002 on Friday.
There were a few records that fell on Thursday. Dulles International Airport in Chantilly, Virginia, just 26 miles from Downtown Washington, D.C., was able to reach 100 degrees, breaking its old record of 98 set back in 2002. La Guardia Airport, New York, tied its 2016 record of 98 degrees, which had also been set back in 2002.
In portions of the Midwest, the heat has not been quite as intense as it was in the mid-Atlantic and Southern states, but RealFeel Temperatures have still climbed well into the 90s to near 100 for several days before thunderstorms developed.
In the wake of the approaching cool front, temperatures are forecast to be slashed by 10-20 degrees on average, but a marked drop in humidity will also bring more comfortable conditions for millions.
The cooler air is forecast to spread over much of the Midwest into the end of the week. It will then arrive across portions of the central Plains, the Ohio Valley and much of the Northeast this weekend.
Highs ranging from the upper 80s, 90s and even near 100 from much of this week are forecast to be swapped with highs in the 70s and 80s for the most part. Nighttime lows projected to dip into the 40s over part of the Upper Midwest and central and northern Appalachians to the lower 60s over the Ohio Valley and the upper 60s around the Chesapeake Bay this weekend.
However, the change to cooler weather will come at a cost as more rounds of severe weather are expected to ignite.
This map depicts outages as reported by PowerOutage.us as of early Thursday morning, Aug. 12, 2021.
High winds triggered by severe weather are what led to the widespread power outages into Thursday. More than 400 incidents of high winds and/or wind damage were reported by the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) Wednesday and Wednesday night.
Floyd Stephen, 53, was killed when a tree fell on his vehicle in Washington County, Pennsylvania, during strong thunderstorm winds Wednesday afternoon, according to WPIX. A passenger was taken to the hospital with injuries. There were four reports of tornadoes in the Midwest with at least one confirmed by an NWS spotter near Mineral Point, Wisconsin, on Wednesday evening.
A 13-year-old boy died on Friday after he and six other people were hospitalized after a lightning strike at Orchard Beach in the Bronx Thursday, according to the The Associated Press. The conditions of the other six are currently unknown.
Another injury was reported in Ohio, when a tree fell on a vehicle in Madison County.
The potential for at least heavy, gusty storms will exist into Friday evening from central Oklahoma to coastal Maine, a corridor stretching across more than 1,500 miles.
"The greatest risk of severe thunderstorms with high winds and AccuWeather Local StormMax™ wind gusts to 75 mph are forecast to extend from northern Arkansas to Vermont, western Massachusetts, western Connecticut and the New York City area," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Brett Anderson said.
Winds this strong can easily break large tree limbs, knock down power lines and cause minor property damage. Truck drivers could face dangerous travel conditions as winds will be high enough, where gusts blow across highways, to threaten flipping high-profile vehicles.
People are urged to move indoors and away from windows at the first rumble of thunder. Where thunder can be heard, there is the risk of a lightning strike. Tents, picnic pavilions and golf carts do not offer adequate protection from lightning.
Sudden poor visibility in torrential downpours can be another danger motorists will encounter in addition to flash flooding. A small number of tornadoes cannot be ruled out into Thursday evening as well.
CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APP
The forward motion of the leading edge of the cooler, less humid air is forecast to slow and stall over the weekend from the southern Plains to the interior South and along the lower part of the mid-Atlantic coast.
"Near where the front stalls, the reduction in humidity levels will be more gradual and may not occur much at all. This stalled front may then set up a zone for repeating showers and thunderstorms from this weekend to well into next week," Anderson said.
A complicating factor next week will be moisture from Fred, which is forecast to roll across the Southeastern states with heavy rainfall. The proximity of the front and tropical moisture could unleash excessive rainfall and raise the risk of flooding across the southern Appalachians, the central Appalachians and possibly areas closer to the Atlantic coast as next week progresses.
SEE ALSO:
Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier, Spectrum, FuboTV, Philo, and Verizon Fios.
Report a Typo