Repeated storms to unleash high winds, flash flooding across Midwest and Northeast
The pattern will follow a brief taste of fall-like weather across the region and could trigger rounds of locally damaging thunderstorms every day or two.
Floodwaters inundated the lobby of a hotel in Weston, West Virginia, on July 21. A guest found thigh-high water inside as flooding prompted a statewide state of emergency.
After a brief lull in widespread severe weather, rounds of thunderstorms will return to the Midwest and Northeast by this weekend, bringing damaging winds and heavy rainfall that could lead to flash flooding.
"A comfortable break from the heat, humidity and thick smoke will continue through Saturday for most of the Northeast," AccuWeather Meteorologist Brandon Buckingham said.
"These storms will ride along the periphery of a building heat dome across the Plains that will bring record-challenging temperatures into next week," Buckingham said.
While storms will be more spotty in nature on Saturday, the few thunderstorms that develop from Montana to South Dakota can pack a punch, bringing a risk of hail and damaging wind gusts of 65-75 mph.
A few thunderstorms with localized gusty winds and hail could also interrupt outdoor plans around the Great Lakes.
Thunderstorm risks expand east Sunday into early next week
A more concentrated cluster of thunderstorms is expected to return to the Midwest on Sunday, centered over Wisconsin.
"Heat and humidity will build back across the Midwest by the end of the weekend, providing fuel for thunderstorm complexes capable of producing widespread damaging wind gusts, large hail and torrential downpours," Buckingham said.
By Monday and Monday night, the risk of thunderstorms capable of snapping trees, downing power lines and producing rain heavy enough to trigger flash flooding will shift eastward into portions of the Ohio Valley and Great Lakes.
Some of the storms will extend farther south into parts of West Virginia and Kentucky that were hit hard by flooding earlier this week, according to Buckingham.
The rounds of rain expected across western Ontario, the primary source region for the wildfire smoke that has drifted into the United States in recent weeks, should help limit worsening fire conditions and, at least temporarily, reduce the risk of thick smoke and hazardous air quality reaching the Northeast. However, episodes of smoke and haze will remain possible across parts of the Midwest and Northeast into August, as prevailing northwest-to-southeast steering winds periodically transport smoke from Canadian wildfires into the region.
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