Widespread thunderstorms, severe weather, and the threat of flooding over nearly half of the Lower 48 have led to the cancellation of over 1000 flights and 2500 delays on Friday. See today’s alerts and the weekend forecast.
Over 1K flights canceled, 2.5K delayed on Friday due to bad weather
The news came in just after 12:15 PM ET on Friday: over a thousand flights were grounded across the nation as severe weather presents a serious threat to air travel.
There have also been over 2500 more flights delayed, according to FlightAware.
The airline with the highest number of cancellations so far was American, pulling the plug on around 200 flights, USA Today reported.
Friday’s weather alerts: Heat, flooding
Dangerous heat over parts of the central US and Northeast, as well as a flooding threat in the West, mid-South, Ohio Valley, and mid-Atlantic.
Here are Friday’s weather alerts from the National Weather Service (NWS).
Flash flood warning: north-central, central and eastern Washington, northern Idaho, southeastern California, northwestern Arizona, and southern Nevada.
Flood watch for portions of California, Nevada, New Mexico, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania.
Excessive heat warning: south-central South Dakota; north-central and northwestern Nebraska.
Heat advisory for portions of Washington, Oregon, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Illinois, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire.
Severe weather risk for upper Midwest
The Storm Prediction Center (SPC) has issued a level 2 severe weather risk for the upper Midwest over northeastern South Dakota, southeastern North Dakota, and into West-central and northwestern Minnesota. The main threats will be damaging winds and large hail with a less than 2 percent chance of tornadoes.
Widespread flash flooding threat to 20 states
Scattered thunderstorms over parts of the West, northern Rockies, upper Midwest, Southwest, South, Southeast, mid-South, and most of the Ohio Valley, mid-Atlantic, and Northeast.
Heavy rain with potential flash flooding over two widespread areas. The first is in the West over southeastern Arizona, east-central California into southern central, and northeastern Nevada, western and northwestern Utah, southeastern Idaho, and southwestern Wyoming. The second expansive area of potential flash flooding covers portions of Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and southern New York.
The weekend forecast
Here is a look ahead at the weekend weather according to the latest forecast by the National Weather Service (NWS).
Saturday: Thunderstorms, multi-state flood risk
Thunderstorms will blanket most of the nation on Saturday, sparing only part of the Pacific Northwest and the Southern Plains.
Heavy rain with the potential of flash flooding over to regions. The first is in the Southwest over southeastern and east-central Arizona, central and north central New Mexico, into southwestern in south-central Colorado. The second area with potential flash flooding is in the upper Midwest over northeastern Nebraska, southeastern and east-central South Dakota, central and southern Minnesota, northern Iowa, as well as northern, east-centra,l and central Wisconsin.
Sunday: Scattered thunderstorms, multi-state flood threat
Scattered thunderstorms over parts of the Southwest, Midwest, South, Southeast, Ohio Valley, mid-Atlantic, and Northeast.
Heavy rain with the potential of flash flooding threatens the following regions. In the Southwest, over southern and central Arizona into east-central and north-central New Mexico, as well as south-central and central Colorado. In the Midwest, potential flash flooding over eastern Iowa, northern Illinois, southern, central, and northeastern Wisconsin into northwestern and northern Michigan, as well as over much of Lake Michigan and parts of northwestern Lake Huron.
