Weather

After a few days of mainly dry conditions, showers and thunderstorms are expected to spread across the Northeast on Friday. Drenching downpours will extend from the upper Gulf Coast to the lower Great Lakes and northern New England. While thunderstorms may occur anywhere in this region, gusty storms are mostly likely to develop from the central Appalachians in the afternoon to the coastal Northeast in the evening. Because of soggy soil, even moderate gusts could topple trees and cause power failures. The risk of urban flooding will extend over much of the area. It will take much less rain in the Northeast, compared with other areas, to result in flooding of small streams.

Mostly dry conditions are in store from Texas to the Dakotas and Minnesota. A narrow zone of high pressure will hover over the region.

In the West, thunderstorms will occur along the Rockies. Some of the storms will extend west to the deserts and basins, but remain east of the Sierra Nevada and Cascades. A few of the storms may produce strong gusts and flash flooding. The majority of areas west of the Rockies will remain at high risk for wildfires.

Focus: Wildfire Smoke Spreads East

Smoke from hundreds of large wildfires from the western United States through western Canada has spread east in the form of haze. This haze may result in sunsets and sunrises that appear more red.