Severe storms may lead to flooding, tornadoes from Plains to Midwest

Thunderstorms are in the forecast Saturday across parts of the central United States as a summer-like pattern continues to deliver hot temperatures and scattered severe weather.

Record high temperatures are possible Saturday from Chicago to Dallas with highs expected in the mid-upper 90s. In fact, people from Tulsa, Oklahoma, to Little Rock, Arkansas, are under a heat advisory Saturday because temperatures are reaching the mid-upper 90s and heat indices may reach up to 107.

There is a slight risk for severe storms in the Texas panhandle and eastern New Mexico late this afternoon and into the evening hours. The main risks are chances for damaging wind, large hail, and a few tornadoes. Amarillo, Texas, and Roswell, New Mexico, are in this risk area.

Farther north there is another area under a marginal risk for severe storms stretching from Minneapolis to Omaha and Kansas City. Damaging wind is the main risk with storms but flash flooding and some hail is also possible.

Towards the East, there is a marginal risk from Pennsylvania, including Pittsburgh, down to Virginia, including Roanoke and passing through Washington, D.C.

Overnight, the risk for heavy rain and flooding centers over eastern Kansas and mid-Missouri. The rain looks to continue through Sunday and into Monday, right along a slow-moving cold front that may become stationary for a time and allow for such excessive rainfall to accumulate.

Offshore storm affecting Northeast

Coastal flood alerts are in effect from the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays all the way up to Portland, Maine.

They system that brought heavy rain and flooding to North Carolina and Virginia last week is now sitting off the Northeast coast, creating rip currents, high surf, and coastal flooding for the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast coast.

These flood alerts are in place through the weekend in most locations, and even into Monday for some.

In the last 48 hours more than half a foot of rain has fallen over parts of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. This is where much of the rain from this system is now centered, otherwise the effects from the storm are for the ocean’s impacts along the coast.

In the tropics

There is now a 60% chance over the next seven days for development from a storm complex currently brewing in the Caribbean. There is a zero percent chance of this over the next 48 hours.

This system may bring heavy rain to the Gulf Coast late next week or next weekend, namely for areas in the Southeast such as the Florida panhandle into Georgia and South Carolina. However, there is so much time for this system to evolve.

There are other areas for development in the Atlantic Ocean, like a 40% chance for development in the next seven days and another 10% chance as well. Both of these areas currently do not pose a risk for developing a storm that would impact the U.S.