Open Modal

Severe storms hit the Midwest and Southeast as more heat targets the East: Latest

news_weather_062626260059
ABC News

(NEW YORK) — Relief from the extreme heat is moving in for some cities on Thursday, but more than 60 million people in the East are still on alert for dangerously high temperatures.

Meanwhile, severe storms with reported tornadoes are targeting the Southeast and the Midwest.

Here’s the latest:

Severe storms

In the Midwest and the Southeast, tornadoes were reported as severe storms struck Wednesday evening — and more storms are on the way.

Ten tornadoes were reported in southern Minnesota and one was reported in Wisconsin on Wednesday.

In Ranchero Village on Florida’s west coast, video captured the moment the strong winds lifted up a 76-year-old woman’s house.

The woman was home at the time but is OK, her daughter, Stephanie Glenn, told ABC News.

“I don’t know how she survived,” Glenn said. “She got thrown around and beat up pretty bad, but is OK.”

On Thursday, severe storms with a few tornadoes will be possible again in Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin, though the storms are expected to be less widespread than Wednesday’s.

The expansive area of high-pressure and heat will also bring scattered showers and thunderstorms from the Heartland to the East Coast, with some of the storms possibly being strong enough to produce some isolated damaging winds. Lightning will also be a concern.

On Friday, a new severe weather threat emerges in the Upper Midwest, with the highest threat stretching from northern Nebraska to South Dakota to North Dakota to Minnesota. Very large hail, damaging wind gusts, spotty flash flooding and a few brief tornadoes are possible.

Heat

More heat records were broken across the East Coast from Connecticut to South Carolina as the dayslong heat wave continued on Wednesday. New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport registered at a scorching 102 degrees for the second day in a row.

The peak of this record-breaking heat wave has now passed, but high temperatures are ongoing on Thursday from Mississippi to Michigan and from North Carolina to Pennsylvania.

The heat index — what temperature it feels like with humidity — is forecast to climb to 90 degrees in Philadelphia, 105 degrees in Washington, D.C., 100 in Atlanta, and 106 in Charleston, West Virginia, and Charlotte, North Carolina.

The heat index is cooling to a balmy 77 degrees in New York City and 66 degrees in Boston.

A few showers and storms, combined with the responsible area of high pressure beginning to weaken, will all help weaken the heat across the East heading into the weekend.

The heat does return next week for the East, but not at the same intensity as this week’s heat wave.

ABC News’ Naomi Vanderlip contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Recommended Posts

Loading...