Daily Weather Update from FOX Weather: Hurricane Erick to form soon as more severe storms threaten central US

Welcome to the Daily Weather Update from FOX Weather. It's Wednesday, June 18, 2025. Start your day with everything you need to know about today's weather. You can also get a quick briefing of national, regional and local weather whenever you like with the FOX Weather Update podcast.

Hurricane conditions expected along Mexican coastline as Tropical Storm Erick intensifies

Tropical Storm Erick is strengthening in the Eastern Pacific Ocean some 180 miles south-southeast of Puerto Angel, Mexico, and is expected to rapidly intensify into a hurricane later Wednesday or early Thursday, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Erick is the fifth named storm of this year's Eastern Pacific hurricane season, and it is expected to be the first named storm in either the Atlantic or Eastern Pacific basins to make landfall.

Mexico's government has issued a Hurricane Warning from Puerto Angel to Acapulco, with other tropical weather alerts issued both south and north of the expected landfall location.

More than 98 million face severe weather threat Wednesday, including St. Louis, Indianapolis and Detroit

After severe storms rocked parts of the central Plains Tuesday with winds over 100 mph and hail, severe storms will threaten parts of the Midwest, Ohio Valley and Great Lakes region on Wednesday.

The Indianapolis metro area is under a Level 3 out of 5 risk of severe thunderstorms, while St. Louis and Detroit are included in a Level 2 out of 5 risk, according to NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.

Thunderstorms are expected to develop in the afternoon, bringing more damaging wind gusts and isolated hail, with a small chance of tornadoes covering northern Indiana and southern Michigan.

Critical fire weather threat for Southwest before 100-degree feels-like temperatures shift east

Low humidity, strong wind gusts and scorching temperatures have prompted Fire Weather Warnings for parts of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and eastern Arizona.

Temperatures are forecast to be over 110 degrees in Las Vegas and Phoenix as summer starts to settle into the Southwest. 

These triple-digit temperatures will shift east into the Plains, mid-Atlantic and Northeast in the form of a dangerous heat wave starting on Friday, just in time for the start of astronomical summer.

Watch this: Wichita slammed with storms packing vivid lightning, flooding rain

Dramatic video recorded in Wichita, Kansas, shows a man inside his car outside a business as a powerful thunderstorm unleashes torrential rain, vivid lightning and thunder on Tuesday.

The severe weather was part of a powerful storm system that raced across the Plains, producing hurricane-force wind gusts and baseball-sized hail.

Before you go

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