A trifecta of storm systems will impact the contiguous U.S. closing out an abbreviated work week, with the most volatile weather targeting the Interstate 95 corridor in the Mid-Atlantic and Carolinas.

WeatherBug Meteorologist Gretchen Mischek has the latest in this exclusive WeatherBug National Outlook.

The main weather player will be vigorous low pressure lifting through the Ohio Valley and eastern Great Lakes, sending a cold front sweeping through the Mid-Atlantic and Carolinas. Along and ahead of it, explosive thunderstorms will unfold, with the biggest concerns being large hail and potentially widespread destructive wind gusts. Even an isolated tornado or two cannot be discounted. Cities that will need to be on the lookout for these dangerous thunderstorms include Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Richmond and Roanoke, Va., and from Raleigh, N.C., to Columbia, S.C.

Beyond the severe weather aspect, the storms will be capable of triggering flash flooding. More than an inch of rain coinciding with the evening rush will make the trip from the office an unpleasant affair along the Interstates 81, 85 and 95 corridors.

Heavy downpours and thunderstorms will also roll across western New York, the Southeast and Florida today. Though the storms will remain below severe limits, flooding downpours will continue to cut away at sizeable rainfall deficits from Georgia to Florida; the existing drought across New York will be all but a distant memory with these gullywashers.

The only other weather interruptions across the U.S. will be found across the Northwest and southern Plains today. A cold front will deliver a few nuisance showers and embedded thunderstorms along the Interstate 5 corridor in Washington, while a few strong storms will bubble across large stretches of the High Plains.

Those escaping the rain and storms from the Intermountain West to Desert Southwest and along the Deep South will be rewarded by early-June sunshine and summer-like temperatures. The mercury will soar to near record levels in the Southwest, where triple digits will be common. 80s and sizzling 90s will be common from the interior Northwest all the way to Deep South`s Gulf Coast.

In polar opposites, chilly 50s and 60s will stretch from the east-central Plains into the Great Lakes, while warm and humid 70s and 80s stretch the length of the Eastern Seaboard.

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