By Mary Gilbert, CNN Meteorologist
(CNN) — Volatile spring weather will kick into high gear this week as a potential severe thunderstorm outbreak and life-threatening flooding loom large for tens of millions of people in the central and eastern United States.
This next severe weather threat comes on the heels of the last, which tore through the central US Sunday, killing seven people, and spread over nearly the entire East Coast Monday. Some areas that were hit hard by those deadly storms – and the destructive storms in mid-March – could yet again be in the path of violent storms late Tuesday through Wednesday.
April is typically when severe thunderstorm season starts to pick up the pace, but destructive weather has already unfolded more often than usual this year. Storms from January through March generated more than 3,200 reports of tornadoes, hail and damaging wind nationwide.
This week’s storm will add to that eye-popping total. Here’s what to expect:
Potential multi-day severe weather outbreak starts Tuesday
A storm will push out of the Rockies and strengthen as it enters the Plains late Tuesday afternoon. What happens next could invoke a strong sense of déjà vu.
The storm’s northern, cold side will fire up the snow machine for the Dakotas and Minnesota late Tuesday while thunderstorms start to rumble farther south.
“A multi-day severe weather outbreak is possible beginning Tuesday afternoon through overnight Wednesday,” the Storm Prediction Center warned.
An expansive area from Texas to Iowa is under a level 2 of 5 risk of severe thunderstorms Tuesday, according to the SPC. A more significant level 3 of 5 risk is in place in parts of Kansas and Oklahoma and Missouri.
Storms will develop in parts of the Plains late Tuesday afternoon and strengthen, reaching more of the region by the evening before tracking east and hitting parts of the Midwest overnight.
Any storm could produce damaging wind gusts, hail and tornadoes, but some of the most volatile will be capable of more. Some storms in Kansas and Oklahoma could produce strong tornadoes – rated EF2 or higher – and large hail the size of quarters to golf balls.
While Tuesday’s severe risk will mainly be confined to the Plains, the hazardous weather on Wednesday is expected to be more intense and could impact a much larger population.
More than 43 million people are under a level 3 of 5 risk of severe thunderstorms Wednesday, including St. Louis, Indianapolis and Chicago.
Thunderstorms in the Midwest could remain severe after sunrise, but how they behave during the first few hours of daylight will affect some of the region’s severe threat the rest of the day.
If Chicago, for example, has stormy weather that lingers past the morning hours, it could prevent severe thunderstorms from forming over the city later in the day. But if the stormy weather clears out early, it will leave Chicago open to another, stronger round of thunderstorms starting in the late afternoon or evening.
Some thunderstorms will also linger Wednesday morning in parts of Kansas and Missouri and will likely strengthen as they move east into the Mississippi Valley by the early afternoon.
Additional storms will develop by the mid-afternoon in the Mississippi Valley. By the evening, severe thunderstorms could stretch from Louisiana and Arkansas to as far north as Michigan.
Despite some uncertainty as to where the worst storms will form in the Midwest, any thunderstorms that do rumble to life Wednesday could quickly unleash every severe hazard.
Damaging wind gusts, hail and tornadoes are possible in any storm, but the greatest risk for tornadoes – some strong and long-lasting – will stretch from Arkansas to Indiana and Ohio.
The strongest storms could also dump up to baseball-sized hail in parts of the Mississippi Valley.
The storms will also deliver torrential rain that sets up a new, longer-lasting threat: flooding.
An entire spring’s worth of rain could fall this week and cause life-threatening floods
A roadblock in the atmosphere caused by a stalled front will point a firehose of moisture from the Gulf right into the Mississippi and Ohio valleys and create a days-long, life-threatening flooding event this week.
Level 3 of 4 risks of flooding rainfall encompass parts of these areas each day from Wednesday through Saturday, according to the Weather Prediction Center.
“This is an increasingly significant setup” with the potential for “high impacts and life-threatening flash flooding spanning the course of several days,” the center warned.
After rain begins Wednesday, each day that follows will see the threat of flooding ramp up. The ground will get increasingly soaked until it becomes unable to absorb more and any rainfall after that point will set off dangerous flash flooding.
Storms will work over the same areas repeatedly and could drop 2 to 6 inches of rain each day – especially from Arkansas to Indiana.
By Saturday, areas caught repeatedly under the heaviest storms could end up with more than 15 inches of rain. The corridor where Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee meet is the most likely place for these extreme totals.
“If we get anywhere near these amounts, a historic flash flooding event is likely,” the National Weather Service in Paducah, Kentucky, warned.
An entire spring’s worth of rain could fall in just four days in the hardest-hit locations. Paducah, for example, averages about 14.5 inches of rain from March to May.
The upcoming heavy rain event isn’t the first period of extreme rainfall this season and likely won’t be the last. Overwhelming rainfall is becoming more frequent in a warming world, as rising global temperatures push weather toward the extremes.
Last week, more than half a year’s worth of rain fell in less than 48 hours and sent parts of South Texas underwater, forcing over 100 water rescues and leaving four dead.
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