Cold front expected to bring widespread rain from the Plains to Northeast

A cold front that will push into the United States from Canada is expected to bring widespread rain from the Plains to the Northeast this week, and the FOX Forecast Center says some areas could even see some severe weather.

While there were showers and storms across the same region last week thanks to a cold front, this latest one will be more expansive.

The cold front will move into the northern Plains starting on Tuesday, and that will trigger some rain along with some cooler temperatures.

“There’s going to be moisture from the Gulf of Mexico that’s going to be swirling up,” FOX Weather meteorologist Steve Bender said. “You’re going to have that Gulf moisture getting into the Plains. When you have that collision course, cold air is going to dive underneath that, lift all of the Gulf moisture up into the atmosphere, and then you’re looking at the potential for widespread rain.”

As this happens, there’s the threat of severe weather across areas stretching from Kansas and the central Plains northeast into Illinois and Wisconsin.

Cities under the threat of seeing some severe thunderstorms on Tuesday include Hays and Wichita in Kansas, Lincoln, Nebraska, Des Moines, Iowa, Rochester, Minnesota, Madison, Wisconsin, and Peoria, Illinois.

“We get an extra boost of moisture, and that’s going to be coming in off the Atlantic (Ocean), so it’s not just the Gulf (of Mexico),” Bender said. “Now you’re going to introduce some of that tropical moisture as well for the East Coast.”

When the cold front collides with the moisture coming in from the Gulf of Mexico, some heavy rain is expected for the Northeast and into the mid-Atlantic.

“So, as this cold front continues to dive along and move to the east, it’s going to collide with that,” Bender said. “And that’s where we’re looking at the latter half of next workweek, the potential not only for the cooler air to reassert itself, but also those storms setting up along the I-95 corridor from Richmond, Virginia to Portland, Maine.

The highest rain totals will be centered across the interior Northeast, and New England as the cold front moves through.

Areas of Main, New Hampshire, Vermont and northern New York could pick up 2-3 inches of rain this week, with some locally higher amounts in northern New England.

Elsewhere, 1-2 inches of rain could fall in southern New England, New York’s Hudson Valley and into Pennsylvania.