Memorial Day Weekend Forecast: Severe Weather Threatens Plans With Heavy Wind and Rain, Thousands of Flight Delays, and Possible Tornadoes

Ominous dark clouds at Jones Beach on Long Island

The Memorial Day three-day weekend is almost here and the weather forecast isn’t limited to just warm temperatures with sunny skies.

Depending on where you will be, the forecast will include tornadoes, heavy rain, high winds, and hail.

On the leadup to the weekend on Thursday, there were a total of 21 reported tornadoes in North Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas. Severe weather throughout the country caused thousands of flight delays across the country as well as hundreds of flight cancellations. On Thursday, there were 8,871 flight delays within, into, and out of the United States with an additional 313 cancellations, according to FlightAware, a service that tracks such information.

Flight delays are already piling up on Friday. As of noon EDT, there had been almost 2,200 delays and more are expected.

Thursday brought damaging winds that knocked down trees and power lines across Maine, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, and, over the holiday weekend, the severe weather will continue from the Plains into the Ohio Valley.

On Friday, damaging winds and large hail are expected from Dallas to Chicago.

Meanwhile, for much of the weekend, record high temperatures are in forecast this weekend in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida. On Monday, the Northeast will face heavy rain and thunderstorms. Flash flooding is possible along the I-95 corridor, especially around Philadelphia and just west of New York City.

(Photo: Accura Media Group)