Potent, locally damaging thunderstorms to hit multiple parts of US through Mother’s Day
Even though no major outbreaks of severe weather are anticipated, multiple regions of the United States will experience potent, dangerous and locally damaging thunderstorms through at least Mother's Day.
Caught on camera: A powerful hailstorm strikes Franklin, TN, on May 8, leaving cars dented and damaged.
Thunderstorms that erupt and affect different portions of the southern and eastern United States will carry the risk of being severe through the weekend, AccuWeather meteorologists say. Next week, severe storms may mark an end to summerlike heat over the northern Plains.
Lightning strikes can occur with little or no notice. There have already been two lightning-related fatalities in the U.S. in 2025, according to the National Lightning Safety Council.
Powerful wind gusts can break tree limbs and pose dangers to those passing beneath. Power surges and long-lasting power outages from the storms can result in financial losses.
Thunderstorm dangers to continue over the weekend
Over the Mother's Day weekend, at the very least, locally heavy and gusty thunderstorms are expected on the southern and eastern flanks of a slow-moving area of low pressure over the Southern states. This zone encompasses just a small part of the southern Atlantic coast on Saturday but will expand more to the west and north on Sunday.
As this storm lifts slowly northeastward, robust thunderstorms are likely to continue, capable of causing disruptions, flooding rainfall and possibly damage in parts of the Southeastern states and the Northeast early next week.
Meanwhile, a slow-moving storm from the Pacific may begin to trigger severe thunderstorms over portions of the northern Rockies early next week then perhaps portions of the northern Plains and Upper Midwest later next week.
These thunderstorms would erupt near the boundary between summerlike air, then in place, and a push of much cooler air from the west.
"There certainly looks like a great deal of dynamics from the jet stream in place for the middle of next week, but moisture may be too limited for widespread severe weather," AccuWeather Expert Long-Range Meteorologist Joe Lundberg said. "However, if conditions change, then the scope of severe weather for the North Central states could increase."
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