While New York and the East Coast bake under an early-season heat spell, the Great Plains, Midwest and parts of the Northeast were pounded by wind and hail Wednesday and face a larger threat Friday.
Sporadic power outages, along with flight cancellations and delays at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, marked Wednesday’s disruptions, which included tornado watches from Illinois to Oklahoma. A few storms may redevelop Thursday, mainly around Syracuse and western New York, before a more significant outbreak arrives Friday across the Midwest and Great Plains.
“The bigger event will be tomorrow,” said Frank Pereira, a senior branch forecaster at the US Weather Prediction Center. “They are going to get kicked around a little bit during that time period.”
In 2025, severe thunderstorms — which produce hail, damaging winds and tornadoes — caused $51 billion in insured losses, the Insurance Information Institute announced earlier this week. It marked the third straight year such losses topped $50 billion, “more than any other category of natural disaster.”
Since Monday, there have been 631 filtered storm reports, including 324 instances of large hail and 39 tornadoes, according to the Storm Prediction Center. In addition, 312 flights were canceled from Chicago’s O’Hare, FlightAware data shows.
As of 8:15 a.m. New York time, there were 54,607 homes and businesses without power across the US, with the majority in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Arkansas, according to PowerOutage.com.
Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers declared an emergency in communities hit by storms and record rainfall. Major flooding is underway on several rivers across Wisconsin and Michigan, the National Weather Service said. In Madison, Wisconsin, 1.53 inches fell Monday, a record for the date.
Heavy rain is also forecast to sweep across southern Ontario and Quebec, including Toronto and Montreal, on Thursday, raising the risk of flooding, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada.
At the same time, 71 daily high-temperatures records are forecast to be threatened or broken across the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic, the Weather Prediction Center said. Highs are expected to reach 88F (31C) in New York’s Central Park and 95F in Washington on Thursday.
On Friday, a large cold front will push across the central US, with the most severe weather developing ahead of it, Pereira said. The system will move east into the weekend, easing the severe threat but pushing out record heat across the Mid-Atlantic.
Photo: Visitors at Brooklyn Bridge Park in New York City on April 14.
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