Severe storms to target Minnesota to Oklahoma into Friday night

By Renee Duff, AccuWeather meteorologist

August 18,2017, 3:10:08PM,EDT

 

The central United States will be the focal point for severe thunderstorms once again to end the week.

The renewed threat for damaging thunderstorms comes less than 48 hours after large hail, damaging winds and even a few tornadoes swept across the Plains.
The thunderstorms could slow travelers hoping to get a head start to their planned destinations for the solar eclipse.
Des Moines and Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Kansas City and Springfield, Missouri; Wichita, Kansas; and Oklahoma City, are a few of the larger metro areas that may be affected by adverse weather conditions late Friday afternoon into Friday night.

In addition to damaging winds, hail and flooding downpours, a few of the strongest storms could spin up a tornado or two.
Tree damage and power outages could hit some communities hard. Bringing loose outdoor items indoors can prevent them from becoming dangerous projectiles.
The thunderstorms to the north of Interstate 70 are expected to be more widely separated in nature when compared to the storms that blossom farther south.
There will likely be a gap between the storms to the north and to the south where little to no rain falls, and there are few disruptions to travel and outdoor plans.
Residents will want to keep up to date on the latest severe weather alerts and follow when thunderstorms could strike their exact location by using AccuWeather MinuteCast®.
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Lingering showers from Friday night’s storms may be ongoing across northern Illinois and Indiana, and around southern Missouri, eastern Oklahoma and Arkansas on Saturday morning.
These is the potential for feisty thunderstorms to reignite from Ohio to western Pennsylvania later in the afternoon.
The risk of additional rounds of thunderstorms and severe weather over the Central states will not end with the start of the weekend.
A batch of heavy, locally severe thunderstorms is likely to ignite near the Kansas and Nebraska border on Saturday night. A more widespread severe weather event is then expected to unfold over South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota and Iowa on Sunday.