ARLINGTON, Va. − The good, the bad but not much of the ugly describes the Labor Day weekend weather forecast across much of the nation.
"It will be kind of a mixed bag but overall kind of a thumbs-up where a lot of people live," Carl Erickson, meteorologist for AccuWeather, told USA TODAY. "For most of us it looks really good − no big heat, low humidity."
The sweet spot includes a swath of the nation stretching from the Great Lakes through the Ohio Valley through most of the Mississippi Valley and the Mid-Atlantic states. Those regions "all look really nice," Erickson said. Chicago, Detroit and New York will be sunny with highs in the low to mid-70s. Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C., will reach the low 80s.
Not everyone will be so fortunate. Erickson said much of the Southeast including the Carolinas, Georgia, the Gulf Coast and Texas can expect rounds of thunderstorms and showers through the weekend. The wet weather could extend up through the Eastern Rockies, New Mexico and Colorado.
"Excessive" rainfall over burn scars in the Rockies could also prompt flash flooding along steep terrain, the National Weather Service warned in its extended forecast discussion. And a "surface front" stretching from the southern High Plains across the Gulf Coast and through the Southeast will fuel heavy rainfall, the weather service said.
