A stormy end to the work week and start to the weekend is on tap from the Northern Rockies and Middle Mississippi River Valley to the East Coast.
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This afternoon and into tonight, frontal boundaries tracking across the Northern Tier of the U.S. will be responsible for numerous showers and storms across the Northern Rockies and northern Great Plains.
These storms will have abundant moisture aloft to work with and some storms will be slow moving.
The Weather Prediction Center (WPC) has a pair of Slight Risks for Excessive Rainfall; one stretching from northern Utah and eastern Idaho into the Black Hills of South Dakota and another in the central Great Plains.
Flood watches are also in place for parts of these regions as well.
The Central Plains features the best odds of severe weather as the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) issued an Enhanced Risk (threat level 3/5) for northwest Kansas, northeast Colorado, and southwest Nebraska.
There is also a frontal boundary draped over the Mid South that is set to produce more rounds of heavy showers and storms.
A Slight Risk for Excessive Rainfall is in place from southeast Missouri to the Tennessee Valley and southern Appalachians.
Elsewhere, an approaching cold front from Ontario has prompted the issuance of a Slight Risk (threat level 2/5) for severe weather in parts of northern New York.
WPC has a Marginal Risk (threat level 1/4) in parts of northern New England, as well as in South Florida where torrential downpours within thunderstorms could cause flash flooding in urbanized communities.
Friday and Saturday both look particularly busy thanks to a pair of storm systems that will be acting to reinforce a stalled frontal boundary in the northern Great Plains and Upper Midwest.
WPC has just issued a Moderate Risk (threat level 3/4) for Excessive Rainfall on Friday that includes parts of southeast Montana, southwest North Dakota, northwest South Dakota, and far northeast Wyoming.
Severe weather is also in the forecast for parts of the interior Northeast, so the SPC has issued a Slight Risk from northern PA to southern Vermont.
By Saturday, the Slight Risk for Excessive Rainfall shifts east to include areas from the Black Hills on east to southern Minnesota and northern Iowa.
SPC has a Slight Risk for severe storms in the Nation's Heartland.
Scattered showers and storms are also be possible in the Northern Rockies thanks to lingering monsoonal moisture and in Florida where diurnally driven storms will be common each afternoon.
Temperature wise, drastically different air masses will entrench themselves across parts of the North (cooler) and South (hotter).
Excessive and even dangerous heat is likely to continue in the South Central U.S.
through Saturday with heat indices topping out as high as 115 degrees in some cases.
Daily record high temps will be common each day from the Southwest to the central Gulf Coast with daytime highs routinely surpassing the century mark.
Expect morning low temperatures that struggle to drop below 80 from Texas to the central Gulf Coast, which will also break record warm minimums and provide little relief from the heat overnight.
The heat dome expands more into the Desert Southwest this weekend.
Farther north, temperatures will feel more like September in the northern Rockies and Plains tomorrow and into the upcoming weekend.
Temperatures look to be cool enough that some daytime highs will struggle to top 70 degrees in parts of the Northern Rockies. ■