Potent thunderstorms to close out the week from Detroit to Nashville

Thunderstorms that erupt over parts of the central United States will not only lead to travel and outdoor activity disruptions, they can also be damaging at the local level into Friday night.

Thunderstorms will slowly progress eastward across the middle of the United States through Friday. Some may be severe at the local level during the afternoon and evening hours, leading to dangers and disruptions, AccuWeather meteorologists advise.

A slow-moving dip in the jet stream with an associated cool front will be the main focus for thunderstorms from the Mississippi Valley to parts of the Great Lakes and the Ohio and Tennessee valleys into Friday night.

Rising temperatures throughout the day will boost the intensity of the thunderstorms during the afternoon hours when they can become severe with strong wind gusts, hail and flash flooding. It may take a few hours in the evenings for the storms to diminish with more routine downpours and brief gusts of wind.

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Those on the roads, at ballgames or at airports should anticipate delays as the storms approach and move through with strong winds, urban flooding and frequent lightning. Experts urge people who are outdoors to seek shelter indoors as storms approach due to the risk of lightning near their location. A thunderstorm does not have to be severe to produce a close-by lightning strike.

Into Thursday night, the likelihood of heavy and gusty thunderstorms with locally severe weather will extend from Wisconsin to Oklahoma and include the major metro areas of Chicago, St. Louis, Oklahoma City, and Kansas City, Missouri.

A more concentrated zone with thunderstorms likely to become severe will extend from west-central Illinois to central Missouri into Thursday night.

On Friday, thunderstorms will align in an archlike fashion from southeastern Michigan and southwestern Ontario to southwestern Kansas. Within this zone, locally severe thunderstorms are likely.

Some of the major metro areas that could be affected by severe weather from Friday afternoon to Friday evening include Detroit, Nashville, Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Cincinnati.

Locally severe storms may also affect Columbus, Ohio; Charleston, West Virginia; Louisville, Kentucky; Memphis, Tennessee; Little Rock, Arkansas; Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Dodge City, Kansas, during Friday afternoon and evening.

During the weekend, the potential for locally severe thunderstorms will focus more on the Appalachians and then later along part of the Atlantic Seaboard.

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