WeatherFanatics: Weekend Storms to Focus on Central US, South

Saturday, June 21, 2014

Weekend Storms to Focus on Central US, South

By Alex Sosnowski, Expert Senior Meteorologist

June 21,2014; 2:39AM,EDT

Thunderstorms will re-fire over portions of the Plains, Midwest and South this weekend, while rain sweeps through part of the mid-Atlantic on Saturday.
Locations from Minneapolis, St. Louis and Omaha, Nebraska, to Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and Nashville will be in the zone where some rain and thunderstorms are in the offing for at least part of the weekend.
People spending time outdoors at picnics, ballgames, fishing, golfing or swimming may have to dodge some raindrops and run for cover on more than one occasion this weekend within this swath. Lightning will be a concern as well.

Most of the downpours over the Plains, Midwest and South will occur during the afternoon and evening, but there will be some exceptions.
A storm system will bundle some of the moisture, focus it on Saturday and may help to sweep it away on Sunday in the mid-Atlantic.

New England will be free of rain this weekend, thanks to a pocket of dry air sagging southward from Canada.
AccuWeather.com MinuteCast™ has the minute-by-minute forecast for your exact location when showers and thunderstorms threaten in the short term. Type your city name, select MinuteCast™ and input your street address. On mobile, you can also use your GPS location.
The showers and thunderstorms will continue to fire and repeat through the weekend along a northwest to southeast zone, which will separate cool air and low humidity in the Northeast from hot, humid air over the central Plains, lower Mississippi Valley and the Deep South.

Most of the storms in this zone will not be severe, but a few communities can be hit hard by repeating downpours, causing flash and urban flooding and a smaller number of storms can bring brief strong wind gusts that can knock down trees and cause sporadic power outages.
RELATED:
AccuWeather Severe Weather Center
Mid-South Regional Radar
Which Outdoor Activities Top the Charts for Lightning Perils?
The greatest risk for large areas of severe weather will be over the central Plains this weekend, where there can be incidents of large hail, damaging winds and a few tornadoes.
Another pocket of severe weather may center on the Carolinas and southern Virginia on Saturday.
This is the time of year when it is rather easy for an average shower to become a thunderstorm with little notice. This is most likely during the afternoon and evening, due to heating of the day.
Be sure to keep an eye out for rapidly changing weather conditions and ears open for thunder. If you can hear thunder, you are at risk for being struck by lightning. Seek shelter indoors away from windows as storms approach.

On Social Media

Tweets for this article AccuWeather Updates