Summer's grip to return to the Plains, Midwest into late week

While many locales across the Plains and Midwest have embraced the refreshing air mass to ring in the month of August, Mother Nature will remind residents that summer is still here to stay for a while longer.

After observing high temperatures largely in the 70s in recent days in places like Minneapolis, Chicago, Indianapolis and many other Midwestern cities, temperatures will begin to trend upward during the latter half of the week.

The dip in the jet stream responsible for the refreshing air mass over the region will finally begin to shift eastward and lift northward over the coming days. The result will be higher temperatures that will expand in a west-to-east fashion across the Plains and Midwest through late week. Many cities can expect temperatures to climb around 10 degrees Fahrenheit by this weekend.

While the increase in temperatures may not be all that drastic, the increase in humidity across the Plains and Midwest will surely make the air feel noticeably more uncomfortable once again by this weekend.

Along with the increase in humidity across the region, chances for showers and thunderstorms will increase for some as a series of weak atmospheric disturbances track along the periphery of the heat over the coming days.

Into Wednesday night, the first disturbance to bring along a threat for locally severe weather tracked out of the central Rockies and brought feisty thunderstorms along the Front Range and High Plains. While thunderstorm coverage was isolated in nature, the storms that did fire up produced damaging wind gusts, hail and torrential downpours.

Showers and thunderstorms are also expected to extend into portions of the Midwest, possibly even for the Twin Cities in Minnesota. While a few storms may become strong into the evening, the ingredients for severe weather are somewhat lacking across the Midwest compared to the Front Range.

A similar atmospheric setup is expected into Thursday evening as well, with of eastern Colorado to New Mexico expected to face a threat for locally severe thunderstorms.

The Midwest is expected to have more garden variety shower and thunderstorm activity.

Into the weekend, the jet stream pattern is expected to remain around the Canadian border, allowing the heat to encompass most of the Plains and Midwest. There will continue to be a threat of quick-hitting disturbances that ride along the jet stream, spelling a chance for wet weather across the northern tier of the nation.

Storms from late Friday to Friday night could be severe over portions of the Dakotas to western Minnesota and southern Manitoba, Canada.

"There is a chance of isolated tornadoes as well, especially across southern Manitoba," according to AccWeather Meteorologist Brett Rossio.

The risk of severe weather will continue over parts of the northern and central Plains on Saturday.

On Sunday the threat of severe storms will shift farther to the east, reaching portions of the Upper Midwest.

Seasonably warm air along with near-average rainfall is expected to persist across much of the Midwest into next week.

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