Dangerous Thunderstorms Roll Into the East and South Today

Dangerous thunderstorms will spread into large portions of the East and South today and tonight, with the threat of damaging wind, large hail and isolated tornadoes extending from western New England to the Gulf Coast. The new storms are associated with the same storm system that produced tornadoes in the Plains and Midwest over the weekend.

The most widespread severe weather will occur from later this afternoon through this evening, when unseasonable warmth in advance of the storm -- part of the fuel for the thunderstorms -- will reach its peak.

While the possibility of isolated tornadoes will occur across the entire region, the highest threat will be found in the Tennessee / lower Mississippi Valley, according to the Storm Prediction Center.

(Image courtesy of NOAA)

Over the weekend, the storm system was responsible for 732 preliminary reports of damage, including 31 reports of tornadoes.

Tornadoes were mainly focused in western Iowa on Saturday, including the very damaging Mapleton, Iowa, tornado, which caused damage to more than half of the town, according to The Associated Press. Numerous severe weather reports were also accumulated from Kentucky into the Carolinas, where a second intense area of thunderstorms occurred.

Severe weather reports were tallied from Wisconsin and Michigan southward to north-central Texas on Sunday, including seven tornado reports in Wisconsin. A large tornado touched down near the town of Friendship.

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The thunderstorms today and tonight will be fueled, in part, by exceptional warmth streaming northward in advance of the approaching storm system. Temperatures will climb well into the 70s as far north as New York City, where temperatures have not yet climbed into the 70s this month. High temperatures will be in the middle 80s in Washington, D.C.

While the greatest risk of damaging thunderstorms will be to the west of the major cities along the Eastern Seaboard, locally intense thunderstorms will move through this corridor later tonight into Tuesday. Minor flooding is possible.

The potential for locally damaging thunderstorms on Tuesday will extend from eastern Virginia southward to Florida.

Much cooler air will follow the passage of the storm. In Des Moines, Iowa, high temperatures will be the 50s today after a high temperature of 90 degrees on Sunday. High temperatures will be in the 50s and 60s along the Eastern Seaboard on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Another round of dangerous thunderstorms is likely later this week as a yet another potent storm system moves across the country. The storm will arrive in the Plains on Thursday and push into the Midwest by Thursday night, arriving along the East Coast by Saturday morning.

Damaging thunderstorms are likely with this storm on its trek eastward.

This late-week storm will be the third in the current series of storms, following a powerful storm that swept from the Plains to the East Coast last week, generating over 1,800 preliminary severe weather reports from April 3 to 5.