Heat Dome Steers Severe Storm Threat From Midwest To Northeast

 Chris Dolce

Published: July 26, 2023

Storms tracking along the periphery of a hot dome of high pressure that's covering much of the nation could produce s​evere weather in the Midwest and Northeast over the next few days.

Here's what we are tracking Wednesday: Showers and thunderstorms are spreading across the upper Midwest at this time, as the latest radar and severe weather alerts map shows below.

Damaging storms are possible this afternoon and evening in the southern Great Lakes, including Chicago, Cleveland, Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Detroit. P​arts of southern Michigan, northern Indiana and northwestern Ohio have the highest likelihood of severe weather.

T​hose storms could pack damaging straight-line winds, hail and possibly an isolated tornado threat.

The threat shifts to the Northeast Thursday. A large part of the Northeast Interstate 95 corridor has the chance for severe storms during the afternoon and evening, including from Portland, Maine, to Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, D.C.

Any storms that turn severe could produce damaging wind gusts, hail and possibly an isolated tornado. The storms might also contribute to travel delays in the region.

Severe t​hreat shifts back to the Midwest on Friday. At least isolated severe storms are possible to end the workweek, especially from southern Minnesota and northern Iowa eastward to northern Illinois, southern Wisconsin and northwest Indiana.

Here's how the heat dome is helping to trigger severe weather: Upper-level high-pressure systems create heat waves in summertime like the one we're seeing this week in the central and eastern states.

I​t's common for disturbances in the upper atmosphere to track in a clockwise direction along the periphery of those highs. The rising air created by those disturbances overrides hot, humid air near the ground, which can trigger the development of bouts of thunderstorms.

Chris Dolce has been a senior meteorologist with weather.com for over 10 years after beginning his career with The Weather Channel in the early 2000s.

The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.

The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.