Few rain chances come with heat building

The heat that has been responsible for the sizzling temperatures in the south will begin to expand north beginning this weekend.  This heat, however, could come with a few gusty thunderstorms throughout the next 7 days.  As the ridge lifts north Friday into Saturday the Stateline will be along its northern edge.  Thunderstorms will likely begin across the northern Plains and southern Canada during the afternoon and ride southeast, along the outer edge of the heat dome.  It's the heat and instability that has built up during the day that helps fuel thunderstorms overnight.  Should the northern edge remain along the Great Lakes we could get a couple storms that roll through, possibly Friday night into Saturday.

By Sunday, the heat will have expanded a little further north pushing the 'storm interstate' further to the north as well.  This pattern will continue into Monday.  Monday night and again Tuesday night it appears as if the main core of the ridge will shift west, centered more over the central part of the U.S.  This will, once again, place the northern outer edge of the ridge across the Great Lakes.  A couple weak cold fronts will try to move southeast out of Canada around the same time the main ridge shifts west.  Unfortunately it doesn't look like they'll completely make it through, but we could get those overnight storms Monday night and Tuesday night.  As the days continue we'll be able to better pinpoint where these storms will move.