Severe weather to hit parts of US as heat wave persists in the South on the Fourth of July

Severe thunderstorms were expected across swaths of the eastern United States on Monday as the Southwest continued to swelter under a relentless heat wave through the long Fourth of July weekend.

Scattered showers and thunderstorms were expected through much of the eastern U.S., with chances of flash flooding in some areas from the lower Great Lakes to southern New England, the National Weather Service said in an update Monday.

There was also a lower possibility of heavy rain and thunderstorms as far south as the interior Southeast and into the Deep South, it said.

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