Midwest, East Coast could see damaging winds, flash flooding this week

Widespread thunderstorms will bring hail and damaging winds to the nation’s northern corridor starting Sunday evening, threatening Monday evening commutes with gusty downpours and flash flooding, forecasters said.

The Great Lakes and Ohio Valley will face the greatest risk as the storms skirt the uppermost edge of a heat dome across the Plains and rumble through eastern Minnesota and northern Wisconsin, fueled by ample amounts of heat and humidity.

By Sunday evening, the system is expected to develop into a widespread barrage of storms wielding heavy rain and “wide swaths of damaging wind gusts” up to 85 miles per hour as they advance southeast into the Great Lakes region, Accuweather meteorologist Brandon Buckingham said.

“Day-to-day thunderstorm activity can sometimes rely on where previous rounds of thunderstorms develop, which makes pinning down the exact location of the highest risk for severe weather difficult until just a matter of hours before storms form,” Buckingham said.

The weather service said felled tree limbs and power outages are possible, with lightning and downpours anticipated by Monday afternoon and evening.

The severe weather will eventually continue into the Northeast and mid-Atlantic regions, impacting travel especially along the Interstate 95 corridor from New York City to Raleigh, North Carolina. Damaging wind gusts, hail and downpours are all in play.

Prolonged, heavy rains along the system’s northern periphery are expected to linger through Tuesday evening, raising the chance of flash flooding from Buffalo to Boston. By Wednesday, it could threaten severe weather across parts of New England, with flash floods possible in urban areas and places with poor drainage.

Elsewhere, hazardous heat is expected across the central and southern United States, according to the National Weather Service, with afternoon highs Sunday and Monday in the upper 90s and lower 100s. Heat indices could exceed 105 to 115 degrees throughout parts of the Rockies, the Plains, Mississippi Valley and parts of the South, the weather service said.