Severe storms, high winds to threaten central US into this weekend

By Alex Sosnowski, AccuWeather senior meteorologist

Severe thunderstorms will erupt over parts of the northern Plains and eastern slopes of the Rockies into this weekend.

Into the first part of Friday night, the risk area is forecast to extend from southern Manitoba, Canada, to the western parts of the Dakotas, western Nebraska and the eastern parts of Montana, Wyoming and Colorado.

"The greatest risk of a couple of tornadoes during early Friday night will be focused on the southern end over eastern Colorado, southeastern Wyoming and the Nebraska Panhandle," according to AccuWeather Meteorologist Brett Rossio.

Storms may continue well into Friday night over the central parts of the Dakotas to southern Manitoba.

During Saturday afternoon and night, the greatest risk of severe thunderstorms will extend from parts of northwestern Ontario and southeastern Manitoba, Canada, to western Kansas and eastern Colorado.

While there can be an isolated tornado anywhere along this swath on Saturday, there is a greater chance of such an occurrence on the southern end once again over the central Plains.

The most common threat from the storms during Friday and Saturday will be strong wind gusts. The AccuWeather Local StormMax™ for wind will be near 70 mph.

At this force, trees can be toppled, property damage can occur and the power may be knocked out.

RELATED: 
The difference between tornado watches and warnings 
7 lightning safety tips if you’re caught outside during a thunderstorm 
Heavy rainfall to be double-edged sword across southern US into early next week

High-profile vehicles such as trucks, motor homes and buses could roll over.

Blinding downpours will also accompany many of the storms.

Any thunderstorm that lingers for more than a few minutes will have the potential to cause flash flooding, regardless of how dry or wet the ground may be.

The bulk of the storms will occur to the northwest of areas that have been hit the hardest with heavy rain and flooding in recent weeks.

The storms are being produced by a slowly advancing push of cool air from western Canada and the northwestern U.S.

The same setup produced a few dozen incidents of strong winds from the northern Rockies to the Great Basin during Thursday afternoon and evening.

Trucks were blown over, trees were toppled and sporadic power outages occurred from northern Montana, northern Utah and central Nevada.

Download the free AccuWeather app to receive severe weather warnings as soon as they are issued for your area.

Keep checking back for updates on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.