“Severe weather will continue to cause disruptions and threaten lives and property across portions of the central and eastern United States during the extended July Fourth weekend,” said AccuWeather meteorologists.
The ongoing severe weather threat follows a derecho that blasted areas from Nebraska and Iowa to central Illinois and southern Indiana on Thursday. The powerful complex of thunderstorms, which rolled along for approximately 450 miles, produced several hundred incidents of damaging winds and torrential rain, similar to that of a hurricane, tossing trucks and flattening corn fields with wind gusts as high as 100 mph.
Much of the severe weather that occurs through Monday will be associated with a slow-moving storm system that travels from the central Plains to end the week to parts of the Midwest this weekend and finally a portion of the Northeast early next week.
“We are watching a new complex of thunderstorms on Friday that was taking a similar path to Thursday’s derecho,” said AccuWeather meteorologists.
“While strong wind gusts, heavy rain, and some hail are likely in this batch of thunderstorms as it moves eastward, it may not have the overall intensity of Thursday’s high-powered complex,” said Brandon Buckingham, AccuWeather Meteorologist. Localized flash flooding could develop in places like eastern Missouri and central and southern Illinois as downpours hit areas that were soaked by heavy rain on Thursday.
“Overall, there is still some risk of a derecho through Saturday from the Plains to parts of the Ohio and Tennessee valleys,” said Adam Douty AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist. “However, conditions are not as volatile for strong derechos as earlier this week, but thunderstorms will still pack a punch at the local level.”
The threat of severe weather on Saturday and Saturday night will extend from western Missouri to Ohio, as well as near the southern shore of Lake Michigan and the southern border of Tennessee.
Some of the major cities at a heightened risk of severe weather on Saturday include St.Louis, Nashville, and perhaps Cincinnati.
On Sunday, as the storm system continues to inch eastward, the severe weather threat will mainly encompass much of Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, Delaware, and Maryland, as well as portions of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.
Occasionally severe thunderstorms can span a tornado, but tornadoes through the weekend are likely to be very few.
Patches of steady rain will occur near and north edge of the thunderstorms and the track of the storm system. Areas most likely to experience a few hours of steady rain will extend from portions of Iowa, northern Illinois, and southern Michigan early this weekend to southern Michigan, northern Ohio, northern Pennsylvania, and western New York on Sunday and finally, eastern upstate New York to northern New England on Monday. The rain may persist for several hours this weekend in the Midwest to early next week, putting a damper on holiday weekend plans.
The major metro areas are from New York City to Philadelphia, Washington, DC, Richmond, Virginia, and Raleigh. North Carolina, may have to deal with at least one severe storm into the evening hours.
Any downpour or storm right at the beach during the daytime may be brief, but flooding downpours and damaging wind gusts as little as a few miles inland can lead to travel delays.
Since the forward speed of the overall storm system is slow, there may still be some shower and gusty thunderstorm activity to contend with right along the mid-Atlantic coast and especially in New England on Independence Day.
Locally drenching, gusty thunderstorms are likely to erupt over the Southern states as well.
Forecasters strongly recommend that people on the road or spending time outdoors through the Fourth of July keep an eye on the sky and have the means to receive weather watches and warnings due to the potential for changing weather conditions. In some communities, the storms may not only produce frequent dangerous lightning strikes but also knock down trees, trigger power outages, and cause minor property damage.
Produced in association with AccuWeather
Edited by Judy J. Rotich and Newsdesk Manager
