Severe storms to bring numerous risks over multiday stretch in central, eastern US
Potent storms packing strong winds, heavy rain and lightning will affect many parts of the United States this week, AccuWeather meteorologists warn. From the Northeast and Southeast to the Plains and Midwest, severe weather will impact millions of Americans.
By the time Friday ends, there will have been close to a dozen large batches of thunderstorms that will have roamed about the eastern two-thirds of the nation this week, according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Adam Douty.
Pop-up thunderstorms can occur just about anywhere on a given day in the heat and humidity of a July afternoon and evening. The weather pattern into Friday week will be conducive to the formation of those types of storms in many areas.
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A key factor behind the persistent severe weather will be a southward shift in the jet stream. Meteorologists say the jet stream will continue to dip farther south than usual and fuel long-tracking complexes of severe thunderstorms through Friday from parts of the Rockies to the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.
AccuWeather meteorologists have narrowed down the areas where these thunderstorm complexes will track. Some of them could affect the same areas on a daily basis.
"There may be enough wind shear in the atmosphere associated with a storm system that pivots across the Midwest to allow tornadoes to develop in the strongest thunderstorms through Thursday evening in parts of the Great Lakes region," AccuWeather Director of Forecast Operations Dan DePodwin said.
Many of the storms that develop from Michigan and southwestern Ontario to Kentucky will pack powerful wind gusts and damaging hail. Winds in the storms may knock out power in some neighborhoods as well as bring down trees and large tree limbs. AccuWeather forecasters urge people in the threat zone to closely monitor weather bulletins due to the risk of high-powered storms and a few tornadoes.
The risk of severe thunderstorms will spread across the central Appalachians and western and central New York during Thursday night. Severe storms may extend as far to the southeast as North Carolina and South Carolina as well.
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AccuWeather meteorologists will also be monitoring the potential for a high-powered thunderstorm complex hundreds of miles farther to the west over the Plains into Thursday night.
"As a disturbance pushes to the east of the Rockies, a potent batch of severe thunderstorms is likely to get going from eastern Colorado to western Kansas," Douty said.
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The full spectrum of severe weather is possible with the complex through much of Thursday night over the central and southern Plains, including storms with large hail and perhaps a few tornadoes.
As the complex of storms from the central Plains continues to move along, parts of the Mississippi and Tennessee valleys could again be hit with flooding downpours and strong wind gusts Friday.
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More storms may also erupt farther to the west, once again near the Wyoming and Colorado Rockies.
Similarly, as the storm system over the North Central states from Thursday moves eastward, the risk of severe weather, along with flash flooding, will shift into parts of the Northeast Friday.
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"Parts of the mid-Atlantic, New England and eastern New York state will have to be watched closely for severe thunderstorms on Friday," DePodwin cautioned. The severe weather threat would be in addition to the likelihood of localized flash flooding.
In the past several weeks there have been several incidents of deadly flooding in the Northeast, including in Pennsylvania, Vermont and New York.
As long as the jet stream continues to dip southward into the northern part of the U.S. and a dome of heat persists over the Southwest and South Central states, surges of moisture will continue to fuel more severe thunderstorms this weekend and beyond.
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The latest indications are that the pattern will persist through the end of July, according to AccuWeather's team of long-range meteorologists.
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