Severe storms and downpours to return to southern Plains, lower Mississippi Valley

Rounds of storms packing high winds, large hail and flash flooding will affect portions of the south-central United States well into the weekend.

A corridor from Colorado to Mississippi will be at risk for rounds of severe thunderstorms and torrential downpours that could pose risks to lives and property through this weekend, AccuWeather meteorologists say.

A pair of disturbances will roll southeastward along the edge of the heat dome over the western United States and across the central Plains to the lower Mississippi Valley through Saturday and perhaps the entire weekend.

Thunderstorms on Friday brought widespread damaging wind and hail from south-central Nebraska to much of Kansas, parts of eastern Colorado and far western Oklahoma.

On Saturday afternoon, some severe weather threats will shift farther to the south and west over the southern Plains but also extend farther to the east into the Mississippi Valley.

"Storms on Saturday afternoon and night from eastern Kansas to Arkansas [and] southern Missouri will carry the risk of damaging wind gusts, large hail, flash flooding and isolated tornadoes," Buckingham added.

The AccuWeather Local StormMax™ wind gust for Saturday's storms is 85 mph.

On Sunday, the main threat of severe weather will focus on eastern New Mexico and southeastern Colorado, much of Oklahoma and Arkansas, western Tennessee and the northern parts of Texas, Mississippi and Alabama.

The strongest thunderstorms through Sunday will carry the risk of producing a brief tornado.

Some of the more robust storms will dump 0.50 of an inch to 1 inch of rain over parts of the Plains, but locally, two to four times that amount may occur.

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While many of the heaviest storms and downpours from each disturbance may move over different areas, some storms will overlap.

Where this occurs, the rainfall will be the greatest, and the risk of flash flooding will be the highest. This weekend, areas to watch for flash flooding will extend from Oklahoma to Arkansas, including much of the Ozark Mountains, where camping activities ramp up for the summer season.

On Sunday, some thunderstorm activity will persist over the southern Plains and the lower Mississippi Valley. A few storms may also extend eastward across the southern Appalachians and perhaps to the near-coastal areas of the Carolinas and Georgia.

Fortunately for northeastern Texas, where secondary rivers are once again on the rampage following torrential rain in recent days, most of the storms are forecast to slide by to the north.

Segments of the Neches, Sabine and Trinity rivers in northeastern Texas will be well above flood stage through this weekend, and some areas will experience major flooding. Even if no additional rain falls, some portions of these rivers and others may remain above flood stage through the middle of the month, according to the National Water Prediction Service.

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