Scattered showers and thunderstorms will continue across much of the South along and ahead of a cold front slowly pushing southward through the region.
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Plentiful moisture will bring the threat of some locally heavy downpours.
A couple upper-level waves, one over the Carolinas and another to the west over the Southern Plains, will help to provide a focus for some locally more widespread, intense downpours along the coastal Carolinas and southeastern Texas.
Wet antecedent conditions from rainfall the past few days will increase the risk for some scattered flash flooding, with Slight Risks of Excessive Rainfall (level 2/4) in place.
An isolated threat for flash flooding will exist more broadly across the region both Friday and Saturday.
The presence of storms and general cloudiness will help to keep temperatures near or below Summer-time averages, especially over portions of eastern and central Texas, with highs generally in the 80s.
A frontal boundary draped across the Upper Midwest/Northern Plains will be the focus for daily thunderstorm chances heading into the weekend.
More widely scattered storms are expected Friday before a passing upper-level shortwave helps to encourage more widespread storms on Saturday.
Sufficient instability along with the arrival of stronger winds aloft bringing increasing deep-layer shear is expected to result in at least a few more intense thunderstorms.
The Storm Prediction Center has issued a Slight Risk of severe weather (level 2/5) for portions of northwestern Minnesota and eastern North Dakota for the threat of some large hail as well as damaging winds, particularly if storms can organize into a convective system into the evening hours.
High temperatures will remain rather hot across the Northern/Central Plains and Upper Midwest, with highs in the 90s upwards of 10-15 degrees above average.
Monsoonal showers will continue across portions of the Intermountain West Friday and Saturday, particularly from the Southwest north through the Rockies and central Great Basin.
Deep moisture lingering through the area will bring the threat for some locally intense downpours.
Isolated instances of flash flooding will remain possible, particularly for terrain sensitive areas such as burn scars.
Forecast highs across the West will generally be below average with an upper-level trough overhead, with highs in the 80s and 90s across the Pacific Northwest, Great Basin, Rockies, and interior California, and 60s and 70s along the Pacific Coast.
The Desert Southwest will be much hotter, with highs in the low to mid-110s.
Elsewhere, conditions will be mostly dry from the Midwest to the Northeast under the presence of high pressure.
Forecast high temperatures Friday will be a bit below average, with low to mid-80s forecast.
Highs will warm up a bit on Saturday, reaching into the mid- to upper 80s. ■