Showers and thunderstorms will continue popping up along a cold front that lingers over the East Coast and Southeast on Friday.
A low pressure system over the Great Lakes will slowly advance northeastward and into Quebec. This will allow for scattered showers to persist around the Great Lakes and Northeast, but slowly diminish across the Midwest and Ohio River Valley. A cold front produced by this system will start to push offshore, but allow for a few scattered showers and thunderstorms to develop along the coasts of New England and the Mid-Atlantic states. Strong winds and hail are likely, but tornadoes are not anticipated.
Behind this system in the Plains, a trough of low pressure that dipped into the Northern Rockies from British Columbia will continue moving eastward Friday. As this system moves into the High Plains, it will push warm and moist Gulf air northward into the Central U.S. This will kick up scattered showers and thunderstorms across the Plains. There is a slight risk that these storms will turn severe from North Dakota to Missouri, with possibly an isolated tornado or two.
Farther west, a ridge of high pressure dominates the Southwest, allowing for another hot, dry and windy day. These conditions are favorable for rapid fire spread, with relative humidity values ranging from 8 to 13 percent and surface winds at 20 mph with gusts up to 35 mph.
Temperatures in the Lower 48 states Thursday ranged from a morning low of 24 degrees at Cottonwood Pass, Colo., to a high of 106 degrees at Needles, Calif.
