Severe Weather to Rumble Into the Weekend

The severe weather threat across the Midwest and Plains has jumped to a Level 4 out of 5 on Thursday. Tornado warnings have already been issued in many communities as the storm action ramps up. Here is a look at the potentially dangerous forecast, as well as what you can expect heading into the weekend.

Chicago, Milwaukee, and More in Crosshairs of Major Severe Weather Event

Thursday's storms have picked up right where Wednesday left off across the nation's heartland. Approximately 50 million people are in the path of Thursday's activity as forecasters sound the alarm bell that it could be a doozy of a day.

The atmosphere is simply reloading and relaunching after the busy Wednesday. There were nearly 700 severe weather incidents reported on Wednesday, including almost two dozen tornado sightings in a zone from Iowa through Michigan. The volume of severe weather reports made it one of the top five most active days for severe weather this year. More than 300,000 customers in the Midwest were still without power on Thursday morning. The bulk of the outages were reported in Illinois.

Meteorologists are warning that Thursday's storms could surpass these numbers. The greatest concentration of severe impacts on Thursday is forecast to set up over the Midwest, encompassing major cities such as Chicago, Milwaukee, and Madison. Other communities in the line of fire include Peoria, Illinois; Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo, Michigan; South Bend, Indiana; and Burlington, Dubuque, and Davenport, Iowa. Potential impacts include powerful winds, damaging hail, frequent lightning strikes, and a high risk of tornadoes.

Almost a dozen states from Texas to Michigan will once again be dodging storms. This is the time to make sure that all of your severe weather bulletins are enabled so that you are not caught off guard. Local officials are also warning that the prolonged nature of these storms will raise the chances of widespread power outages.

Flight delays and cancellations are likely to mount as the day progresses and the scope of the storms expands. As of midday Thursday, Chicago O'Hare has already reported 270 flight cancellations and over 660 delays. These disruptions are expected to increase as the storms become more widespread.

In addition, motorists should prepare for heavy rain that reduces visibility on the roads. Flood watches are currently in effect for over 12 million people in the Midwest. Both Chicago and Milwaukee are in this flood watch zone, as rainfall rates of over 2 inches per hour are possible.

The volatile weather will persist after the sun goes down on Thursday. For example, Chicago is bracing for thunderstorms packing large hail, high winds, and the threat of a tornado. The overnight forecast in the Windy City is calling for a low of about 60 degrees, 1 to 2 inches of additional rain, and winds out of the west-southwest at 15 to 25 mph.

The line of storms set up over the Midwest on Thursday will begin to creep to the east by later in the day and into Friday. The storm clusters in the eastern U.S. will be more widely separated, popping up sporadically across a swath of land from North Carolina and up into New England. The highest chance of storms on both Thursday and Friday in the East will be in northern Virginia to the north into the southeastern corner of New York and southwestern New England.

Flash flooding and marble-sized hail will be concerns associated with the storms in the eastern U.S. There is also the chance that the most potent storm cells could generate downburst wind gusts capable of bringing down trees and power lines. Frequent lightning strikes are another impact to be mindful of as the storms ramp up in intensity.

What to Expect This Weekend

The locally severe thunderstorms are expected to persist through the weekend for some portions of the Midwest, the South, and the East. The good news is that the storms are not predicted to reach the same intensity that Wednesday and Thursday brought. Some of the weekend storm cells could extend as far north as the Lower Peninsula of Michigan.

The heart of the storms on Saturday will train over metro areas such as Oklahoma City, Wichita, Kansas City, Des Moines, and Chicago. The primary threats with Saturday's storm cells will be strong winds, hail, and heavy rain.

Two separate clusters of storms are forecast to pop off on Sunday. The first zone will focus on the southern states, bringing cities such as Dallas, Nashville, Atlanta, and Charlotte into the mix.

The second zone is forecast to impact much of the eastern U.S, including metro areas such as Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. The storms could put a wrench in the plans of the White House to hold a UFC event on the South Lawn on Sunday evening. As of now, the forecast is calling for thunderstorms to erupt in the nation's capital in the latter part of the afternoon and evening. It will be a steamy day with highs near 90 degrees and winds out of the south-southwest at 10 to 15 mph.

Stay tuned as we continue to follow these storms as they rumble through much of the U.S. in the coming days.

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