Severe storms packing high winds to roar from Dakotas to Kansas, New England
Rounds of severe thunderstorms will extend from for more than a thousand miles from the Plains to the Northeast in the coming days. The greatest threats will be from damaging winds and flash flooding.
Summer storms rumbled across multiple states in the Upper Midwest from July 23-24, causing flash flooding in some areas.
Rounds of severe thunderstorms will rumble and gust across the Midwest before extending into the Northeast in the coming days.
The main threats from the storms in the Midwest will be high winds and hail, while storms in the Northeast will pack powerful gusts, AccuWeather meteorologists warn. Flooding downpours are also a concern for any storms that develop over the regions.
Roaring, damaging winds with some storms
Storms that erupted late Wednesday continued to rumble and blasted areas in Iowa through Wednesday night with multiple gusts between 70 and 80 mph in several locations. Carroll, Iowa, recorded a gust to 82 mph.
Thursday evening in Chicago, the National Weather Service conducted a damage survey in the western suburbs that concluded there was a microburst with winds of 80 mph.
The risk of severe thunderstorms will shift into parts of the Northeast Friday.
Similar to the Midwest from Thursday, the main severe weather threat in the Northeast will be from localized strong wind gusts with an AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 75 mph. During the afternoon and evening, the primary threat of severe thunderstorms will extend from part of the Interstate 95 corridor in Maine to northwestern New Jersey and northeastern and north-central Pennsylvania.
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Thunderstorms may reach the South Coast of New England, New York City and perhaps Philadelphia.
The risk of severe weather will also reset farther to the west on Friday.
A few severe storms are projected to erupt from northeastern Colorado, the Nebraska Panhandle and eastern Wyoming to portions of southern Manitoba and Saskatchewan, Canada. Storms packing damaging wind gusts and hail will be significant at the local level.
On Saturday, thunderstorms capable of producing gusty winds will extend from northern and central Illinois to coastal areas from southern New Jersey to Delaware and Maryland. While many of these storms may not be severe, a few can strengthen during the afternoon and early evening to produce damaging wind gusts.
The storms into this weekend will tend to occur on the northern rim of heat to the south and east.
From later this weekend to the middle of next week, a major shift in the jet stream will unfold that will eventually allow much cooler and less humid air to spread from the Midwest and into the Northeast.
However, during that transition, one or more rounds of potent thunderstorms are forecast from the Dakotas to the Great Lakes region from Sunday to Tuesday and through portions of the mid-Atlantic and New England during the middle part of next week.
Wind gusts strong enough to damage trees, property and power lines can occur in some of the stronger thunderstorm rounds.
Risk of flash flooding to continue along with severe thunderstorms
Tagging along with the likelihood of localized severe thunderstorms from parts of the Midwest to the East will be torrential downpours that can be intense and persistent enough to trigger flash flooding in urban areas and along small streams.
Through Friday night, multiple rounds of thunderstorms will spread over a large area from the Texas Panhandle northeastward through southern Michigan and northwestern Ohio. A more concentrated zone from southern Kansas to central Iowa will have the greatest flood risk.
Many places will be able to quickly rack up several inches of rainfall, with widespread amounts of 1-2 inches expected across the Plains and Midwest.
From southern Kansas to central Iowa, where thunderstorms repeatedly move over the same area over 4 inches of rainfall can quickly rack up. In some places, rainfall totals can approach the AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 10 inches.
The risk of flash flooding will shift farther to the east Saturday and extend from eastern Iowa and Missouri to coastal areas of Maryland, Delaware and southern New Jersey.
At the very least, motorists on the highways in this zone will experience poor visibility and ponding during the downpours.
Some secondary roads and city streets could be affected by high water, where storm drains become overwhelmed or downpours concentrate on the watershed of a small stream.
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