Severe storm risk to return to north-central US this weekend

By Alex Sosnowski, AccuWeather.com Senior Meteorologist

June 24,2016; 11:21PM,EDT

 

 

The risk of thunderstorms and severe weather will return to the north-central United States this weekend, including some areas that were hit by violent storms on Wednesday.
The storms will get 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 from the northwestern U.S., along with a surge of warm, moist air. The conditions will make the atmosphere ripe for thunderstorms.
The first thunderstorms will erupt along the U.S./Canada border on Friday. A few of these storms can become severe in parts of eastern Montana, North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota.
On Saturday, the most concentrated severe weather will likely be over parts of the northern Plains, the Upper Midwest and adjacent Canada.
"Scattered thunderstorms will develop ahead of a cold front across the Dakotas into Minnesota early Saturday afternoon and spread eastward as the day progresses," according to AccuWeather Storm Warning Meteorologist Alex Avalos.

"The storms will be capable of producing mainly damaging winds and large hail," Avalos said.
Locally severe storms can extend as far to the south as parts of Iowa during late Saturday afternoon and evening.
Severe storms will also extend in part of southern Manitoba and northwestern Ontario, where a couple of the strongest storms will have the greatest potential to produce a tornado during Saturday afternoon and evening.
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Some of the major cities at risk for severe storms on Saturday include Eau Claire, Wisconsin; Des Moines, Iowa; Minneapolis; and Winnipeg, Manitoba
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 later Saturday and Sunday.
Farther to the east on Sunday, scattered heavy thunderstorms will erupt over the central Great Lakes and part of the Ohio Valley.

Through this weekend, while there is the potential for a few strong and/or drenching thunderstorms in portions of Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Missouri, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky, widespread severe weather is not likely in these states.
"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.