Severe storms to bring downpours, powerful winds and damaging hail to central US
Severe thunderstorms and torrential downpours capable of producing flash flooding will both repeat and jump around from day to day over the central United States through the remainder of this week.
AccuWeather’s Ali Reid speaks with Lorena Guillen who shared her story of the horrific sights she witnessed at the flooded Guadalupe River and how she tried to evacuate as many people as possible.
Rounds of thunderstorms will roll over the top of a heat dome in the western United States and slide southeastward over the middle of the nation throughout the rest of this week. AccuWeather meteorologists warn that some of the storms will be severe.
The setup is a common one for severe weather on a nearly daily basis. Where the storms repeat, the risk of flash flooding will be greatest, as the ground will be saturated in some cases.
The main threats from the storms, beyond torrential downpours and the lightning that accompanies them, will be the potential for damaging wind gusts and significant hail.
As the severe weather batches push off into the Eastern states, the atmosphere will reload over and over across the northern Plains.
On Thursday, another batch of severe weather will ramp up over the Dakotas and shift farther to the east and south over the Central states, reaching western portions of Minnesota and Iowa and extending to southern Nebraska, northern and western Kansas, and northwestern Missouri.
On Friday, the severe weather threat will focus a bit farther to the east over the Central states. Friday's severe weather threat will extend from northern Minnesota and southern and western Wisconsin to central Missouri and eastern Kansas.
Omaha, Minneapolis, Kansas City and Des Moines, Iowa, will be at risk. Once again, the storms may approach Chicago later at night.
As the culprit for potential severe weather Friday continues to move along, the risk of severe weather may increase farther to the east over the Great Lakes and the Ohio Valley Saturday.
Severe thunderstorms occasionally can trigger a brief tornado. On any given day through Saturday, there will be the potential for a couple of tornadoes to be spawned in the strongest storms.
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