Severe storm risk returns to north-central US this weekend

By Alex Sosnowski, AccuWeather.com Senior Meteorologist

June 25,2016; 9:01PM,EDT

 

 

Severe weather is threatening the north-central United States this weekend, including some areas that were hit by violent storms on Wednesday.
The storms will become strong enough to cause property damage in some communities and hinder travel for a time. A small number of the storms could become very dangerous.
A storm system will swing eastward, along with a surge of warm, moist air. The conditions will make the atmosphere ripe for thunderstorms.
On Saturday, the most concentrated severe weather will likely be over parts of the Upper Midwest and adjacent Canada.
After locally strong thunderstorms rattled northern Minnesota in the morning, more numerous severe thunderstorms will erupt across the state and progress eastward into Wisconsin and western Upper Michigan into Saturday evening.

"The storms will be capable of producing mainly damaging winds and large hail," according to AccuWeather Storm Warning Meteorologist Alex Avalos. There can also be an isolated tornado or two.
Locally severe storms can extend as far to the south as parts of Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska during late Saturday afternoon and evening.
Severe storms will also erupt over northwestern Ontario, where a couple of the strongest storms will produce a tornado into Saturday evening.
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Some of the major cities at risk for severe storms into Saturday evening include Eau Claire, Wisconsin; Des Moines, Iowa; Minneapolis; and Thunder Bay, Ontario.
In the wake of the severe storms over the northern Plains and southern Canada Prairies, wind gusts in the absence of thunderstorms could break off small tree limbs, cause sporadic power outages and make outdoor plans and projects difficult this weekend.
Farther to the east on Sunday, scattered severe thunderstorms will erupt over the central Great Lakes and part of the Ohio Valley in the afternoon.

While the greatest threat for locally damaging winds and hail will focus on portions of Indiana, Illinois, Ohio and Michigan, there is the potential for a few strong and/or drenching thunderstorms in portions of Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Missouri.
"This weekend, the thunderstorms can disrupt storm cleanup operations, in the wake of wind and hail damage during the middle of this week," according to AccuWeather Meteorologist Kyle Brown.
In most cases, the storms will only take up a small part of the weekend.
On Monday, a few storms with isolated drenching downpours will extend to parts of the eastern Great Lakes and the central Appalachians. This includes flood-ravaged parts of West Virginia.
"While the extreme rainfall from Thursday will not be repeated, any downpours could renew areas of flooding along small streams and in low-lying areas," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Kristina Pydynowski said.