Damaging storms to roar across Midwest through midweek

The same storm system responsible for several dozen incidents of severe weather, including a few tornadoes, over the Great Plains Monday night will pivot eastward across the Midwest into Wednesday evening.

The storms will threaten major population centers and blast across some heavily traveled highways, AccuWeather meteorologists warn.

All forms of severe weather are possible both days through Wednesday, ranging from powerful wind gusts and large hail to tornadoes, including the chance for intense, long-track tornadoes.

The severe weather threat will focus on areas of the Midwest, home to 45 million people, into Tuesday night.

Roughly 35 million people will be at risk Wednesday. Motorists and those spending time outdoors are urged to closely monitor their surroundings and keep alert for rapidly changing weather conditions.

After the severe weather shifts to the east of Omaha, Kansas City, Mo., and Little Rock, Ark., the storms may pack a punch in cities such as St. Louis, Des Moines, Iowa, and the Quad Cities area of Iowa and Illinois during Tuesday afternoon and evening.

While tornadoes can occur in any severe thunderstorm, the areas most likely to experience a few tornadoes will be Iowa, northern Missouri and northwestern Illinois into Tuesday evening, AccuWeather Senior Director of Warning Services Guy Pearson said. This area and others in the Midwest likely will experience more than one thunderstorm into Tuesday night, some of which could be severe.

"There is the potential for an arc of supercell thunderstorms to develop in central and eastern Iowa during the afternoon and evening hours," AccuWeather Extreme Meteorologist Reed Timmer said. Supercell thunderstorms have a high potential of producing tornadoes.

"It is the second round of severe thunderstorms that follow a break of dry weather that could bring the tornadic thunderstorms in Iowa," AccuWeather Chief On-Air Meteorologist Bernie Rayno added.

The risk of severe thunderstorms in the Chicago and Milwaukee metro areas will be greatest during the Tuesday evening rush hour to the first part of Tuesday night as the first round of storms moves in.

Any rainfall without the consequences of severe thunderstorms may benefit part of the upper Mississippi Valley and a portion of the Missouri basin due to abnormally dry and drought conditions in some areas.

The greatest flash flooding risk is likely Wednesday as storms enter a zone farther to the east in the Midwest, where heavy rain has occurred recently.

The risk of severe weather, including the possibility of a couple of tornadoes, will continue to progress eastward through the lower Great Lakes region, as well as the Ohio Valley and part of the Tennessee Valley Wednesday.

Chicago could be affected by a strengthening thunderstorm for the Wednesday morning rush hour.

Cities such as Detroit Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, Indiana Cincinnati, Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio Louisville and Lexington, Kentucky Charleston and Huntington, West Virginia Pittsburgh and Nashville can be affected by thunderstorms all day Wednesday, with severe weather most likely during the afternoon or evening.

The storm risk is likely to be a singular event in much of Tennessee that takes up a small part of the day.

As the risk of severe weather ends over the Midwest from west to east Wednesday to Thursday, the next storm system will bring a new push of warm and moist air over portions of the southern and central Plains.

By Thursday afternoon and evening, the risk of severe weather with storms packing hail, strong wind gusts and torrential downpours will increase from northeastern Texas to eastern Kansas and southwestern Missouri.