Central US faces damaging winds, flash flooding through Thursday

By Brett Rathbun, AccuWeather.com Meteorologist

July 13,2016; 8:22AM,EDT

Thunderstorms will impact travel on the road and in the air across much of the midwestern United States on Wednesday before shifting farther to the south and east on Thursday.
A warm, humid air mass in place will set the stage for robust thunderstorms to initiate into late week.
Cities at risk for a severe thunderstorm on Wednesday include Madison, Wisconsin; Des Moines and Omaha, Nebraska; Springfield, Illinois; Lafayette, Indiana; St. Louis and Kansas City, Missouri; and Topeka, Kansas.
The storms can approach the Chicago suburbs, including O'Hare airport, toward Wednesday evening and the St. Louis and Indianapolis areas during Wednesday night.
"Thunderstorms can produce conditions ranging from poor visibility to strong turbulence and sudden wind shear," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski said. "Arriving flights may be more spaced out or even suspended during such conditions."

Thunderstorms will be at their peak intensity during the late-afternoon and evening hours with the chance for damaging wind gusts and flash flooding before becoming more of a flood threat during the overnight.
"The timing of these thunderstorms will be bad for the evening commute," AccuWeather Meteorologist Michael Doll said.
Wind gusts could be strong enough to snap trees and knock down power lines, resulting in sporadic power outages.
Where thunderstorms repeat an increased risk for flash flooding will exist. Never drive through a flooded roadway. Instead, turn around and find an alternate route.
"One to 2 inches of rain can fall from these storms in a short period of time and flood roadways," Doll said.
Anyone caught outside during a thunderstorm should seek shelter at the first rumble of thunder.
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As drier, less humid air builds across the Midwest during the end of the week, the severe weather threat will shift southward and eastward on Thursday.
"On Thursday, the most intense thunderstorms will develop and move across the southern Plains and middle Mississippi Valley," Doll said.
Any thunderstorm that develops on Thursday could pack a punch.
In areas from western New York state to the Ohio Valley, a few storms can be locally gusty and drenching on Thursday.

Those from Wichita, Kansas, and Oklahoma City to Bowling Green, Kentucky, Nashville, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Buffalo and Syracuse, New York, should be on alert for rapidly changing weather conditions on Thursday.
On Friday, the threat for locally heavy, gusty thunderstorms is likely to extend from eastern Colorado to western North Carolina.
Conditions will improve by the weekend before dry, hot weather dominates much of the Central states next week.