The lull in severe weather over the Midwest will come to an end late Saturday as dangerous thunderstorms are forecast to erupt from South Dakota to Illinois.Those spending the first part of the extended holiday weekend outdoors will have little in the way of weather worries as thunderstorms are not expected to ignite until after dark.However, given the nighttime severe weather risk, residents should make sure they have a way to be notified of approaching severe storms before heading to bed, such as by keeping a cellphone on with severe weather alerts enabled and the volume turned up or having a weather radio handy.Thunderstorms are first expected to ignite once the sun goes down across far eastern South Dakota and western Minnesota. Throughout the night, the storms will expand eastward and southward across the upper Mississippi Valley, putting locations such as the southern suburbs of Minneapolis and Rochester, Minnesota; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; and Rockford, Illinois, at risk during the early morning hours of Sunday.Nighttime travelers on portions of interstates 35, 80 and 90 are likely to face reductions in visibility due to the intensity of the downpours combined with high winds.AccuWeather meteorologists expect winds to gust to an AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 70 mph, with flooding downpours and large hail among the primary storm threats.CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APPSunday morning may start out stormy around Chicagoland and across southern Wisconsin as lingering storms from Saturday night make their way eastward. This shower and thunderstorm activity will lift northward into the Upper Peninsula and northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan through Sunday.Meanwhile, the atmosphere is likely to recharge farther southwest as the sun comes out and the ground heats up. Severe thunderstorms may reignite across southern Wisconsin, eastern Iowa, northern Illinois and into central Michigan late Sunday afternoon into Sunday night. Similar to Saturday night, damaging winds, large hail and flooding downpours are likely to be the primary modes of severe weather. However, the threat for isolated tornadoes increases late in the day on Sunday.Anyone fishing, golfing or cooking out on Sunday afternoon should keep a close watch on the sky and be prepared to seek shelter indoors at the first clap of thunder.On Labor Day, some cooler air will spill into the region behind the severe weather, but that won’t necessarily be accompanied by dry weather for everyone. Find out more in AccuWeather’s detailed Labor Day forecast.Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
