Labor Day weather: Where storms will spoil unofficial end of summer
There's good news and bad news for those traveling or spending time outdoors for the extended holiday weekend and the unofficial end to the summer season. Drenching downpours and gusty storms will be on the prowl.
Aixa Diaz of AAA expects a busy weekend of travel for millions of people for Labor Day. She offers some tips to make the holiday travel safe and smooth.
As the last unofficial, and extended weekend of the summer unfolds and millions take to roads, rails and skies, travelers can expect both sunny days and potential trouble spots as thunderstorms make an appearance on Labor Day, AccuWeather meteorologists say. Depending on your location and timing, your holiday plans might range from smooth sailing to navigating a few weather-related hurdles.
Thundery, drenching episodes to occur in the East
Continuing through much of the Labor Day holiday, downpours can foil outdoor plans and slow travel while potential lightning strikes will be a risk for anyone spending time outside.
Following a wet weekend across the Northeast, Great Lakes and mid-Atlantic with locally severe thunderstorms, refreshing air will continue to spread across these regions on Monday.
Along the northwestern Gulf coast, in portions of Texas and Louisiana, a tropical rainstorm will bring locally torrential downpours and gusty thunderstorms through Monday evening.
By Labor Day, a corridor of drenching showers and thunderstorms will extend from Texas, along the Gulf Coast, to the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida, where localized flash flooding can occur. Across much of Mississippi and Alabama, thunderstorms will tend to be more spotty in nature, and much of the day can end up dry.
Western US hot spots
Meanwhile, much of the West will be free of rain for Labor Day. Some exceptions will be spotty thunderstorms that erupt, mainly over the Rockies.
On Labor Day, sporadic, mainly afternoon and evening storms may fire up from Colorado and Utah to Oregon, Montana and Idaho.
Expect the deserts to experience their usual heat on Monday while highs along the Interstate 5 corridor of the Southwest range from the 70s F on the beaches and bays to the middle to upper 80s inland. Heading into midweek, heat will surge once again across the Dessert Southwest.
Much of the Northwest will continue to swelter in a late-summer heat wave early this week. The worst of the heat has eased in areas along the I-5 zone as the weekend progressed but will continue into Labor Day east of the Cascades to the northern Rockies with widespread highs in the 90s to low 100s.
The northwest Gulf coast tropical rainstorm is being monitored for an upgrade to a depression on Monday before drifting inland over Texas.
There will be budding activity in the Caribbean that could spread showers and thunderstorms to the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico on Labor Day and Tuesday.
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