U.S. faces excessive heat, raucous storms going into week

June 9 (UPI) -- As excessive heat continues to bake the Southwest, severe storms, torrential downpours and rain is forecast for the south-central United States, according to Accuweather, which said Florida is about to go from drought to deluge.

A good portion of southern Arizona, the Las Vegas area and even southern California are red on the weather map, depicting triple-digit temperatures and heat warnings as the weather heats up even before summer officially begins.

Severe and damaging weather is on tap for a good portion of the country, from East to West with flash flood warnings in effect in the Midwest, severe thunderstorm warnings for the upper Midwest and beach hazard alerts in place in the Great Lakes region.

A tropical rainstorm is predicted to drench Florida this week, taking the state out of extended drought conditions, marking the beginning of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season. Meteorologists are closely monitoring the northwest Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico for potential development over the next week, according to Accuweather. While the incident could intensify into a full tropical storm, meteorologists have said it is not likely to be strong enough to be named.

A swath of land running from the northern Rockies to the Southeast is at risk for severe thunderstorms and torrential downpours that could pose risks to lives and property on Sunday, AccuWeather meteorologists say.

That unstable air will then move to the Southeast along the edge of a heat dome that has settled in over the western United States and across the central Plains to the Tennessee Valley through Sunday and into the early work week.

The Front Range and northern Rockies into the Mississippi and Tennessee Valleys also saw unstable weather over the weekend, with some storms dumping more than half an inch of rain, and the fronts could bring more heavy rain into the beginning of the week.

In the Rockies, slow-moving storms could dump hail that piles up like snow in some areas, and have the potential to bring strong wind gusts, creating additional damage from wind-driven hail.

In Texas, stretches of the Neches, Sabine and Trinity rivers in the northeastern part of the state will be well above flood stage into this week, and some areas will experience major flooding.

Even with no additional rainfalls, some portions of these rivers and others may remain above flood stage through the middle of the month, according to the National Water Prediction Service.

Severe weather over the weekend brought widespread damaging wind and hail from south-central Nebraska to a good portion of Kansas, parts of eastern Colorado and the far western reaches of Oklahoma.

Severe weather erupted again on Saturday, this time bringing widespread reports of damaging wind and large hail from eastern Colorado to southern Missouri.

Severe storms are forecast to redevelop across the already storm-weary south-central states Monday. Predictions call for large hail and gusty winds to flooding downpours.

Damaging wind gusts could reach 80 mph Monday across western Oklahoma and western Texas to eastern New Mexico, according to Accuweather.