Flood-weary central U.S. to receive break from persistent downpours

While showers and locally severe thunderstorms will cross the central United States on occasion this week, the wet weather will not be as persistent as in recent weeks.

The less frequent rainy periods will aid communities continuing to clean up from devastating flooding and farmers who have been kept from working in flooded fields.

However, some days will require residents to grab the umbrella or keep a close eye to the sky due to the risk of thunderstorms.

One such occurrence will be late Sunday afternoon into Sunday night as severe thunderstorms threaten to sweep through Dallas, Abilene, San Angelo, Austin, Waco and San Antonio, Texas.

The storms can pack a punch with damaging wind gusts, hail, torrential downpours and even an isolated tornado or two.

People in these and surrounding communities should be ready to seek shelter as soon as thunder roars.

Nuisance showers and storms will dampen the Midwest as the weekend comes to a close.

A sweep of drier air spilling over the Plains will confine downpours to southern New Mexico and southwestern Texas on Monday.

Outside of rogue storms near the Canadian border, Monday's weather will be a pleasant break from the recent storminess with sunshine, low humidity and highs in the 70s across the Plains.

Showers and storms will become more widespread across the Plains and Midwest as a system sweeps in Tuesday into Wednesday.

"These storms have a chance to become severe with damaging winds and hail," AccuWeather Lead Long-Range Meteorologist Paul Pastelok said.

The greatest risk for storms to turn violent locally will be across the central and southern Plains.

The quick-moving nature of this storm system should lower the risk of new instances of flooding.

How fast rainfall returns to the region will be determined by the strength of an area of high pressure following this quick-moving system.

A stronger high will promote dry weather for a majority of the Central states late this week, while a weaker high will allow rain to return to the Midwest.

In either scenario, thunderstorm complexes can roll from the Rockies and into the neighboring central and southern High Plains late in the week.

Any rainfall this week should have a negligible impact on the ongoing river flooding.

Late Saturday, the Mississippi River at St. Louis crested at its second-highest level on record at 46.02 feet, which trails only the 49.58-foot crest during the Great Flood of 1993.

This surge of water is not expected to reach lower portions of the Mississippi River until later in the week, according to National Weather Service hydrologists.

Near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, officials have delayed opening the Morganza Spillway along the Mississippi River indefinitely. The spillway was originally scheduled to begin operating on Sunday, June 9.

"Operation of the structure will be a consideration until the Mississippi River crests and begins to fall," the New Orleans District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said in a statement.

AccuWeather meteorologists will be monitoring the potential for repeating rounds of heavy rainfall to return a heightened flood risk to the Plains and perhaps send a new surge of water into area rivers beginning next weekend.

There is concern for a front stalling and bringing heavy rainfall and thunderstorms from the southern Rockies to the central Plains during the middle of June, according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Jack Boston.