After a brief lull in spring storm activity in recent weeks, a large section of the central and eastern United States is gearing up for the return of severe weather. Beginning Thursday, a sprawling system is expected to deliver rounds of heavy rain and severe storms, bringing with them the threat of flooding, hail, damaging winds and a few tornadoes.

• This is a slow-moving system, which may lead to a lot of rain and flash flooding, especially in parts of Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri.
• Travel may be treacherous throughout the Easter weekend.
• More unsettled weather is expected through the rest of the month.

The system is expected to develop over western Kansas by Thursday afternoon, bringing fast-moving winds high in the atmosphere, which, when combined with the warm, moisture-laden air from the Gulf of Mexico, will create instability — ripe for thunderstorms to break out.

By Thursday evening, severe storms are forecast to erupt across eastern Nebraska, northern Missouri, Iowa and southern Minnesota. From there, the system will move east toward the Great Lakes, bringing a wider threat of severe weather to the South by Friday.

The National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center has outlined a large risk area on Friday from northeast Texas through the middle part of the country and up to Wisconsin and Michigan.

“Large hail and wind damage would be the primary threats,” said Rich Thompson, a meteorologist with the Storm Prediction Center. He added that a few tornadoes are also possible, though a major outbreak on the scale of the one earlier this month was not anticipated.

Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Notes: Values are shown only for the contiguous United States and are in inches of water or the equivalent amount of melted snow and ice. By Zach Levitt, Bea Malsky and Martín González Gómez

Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Notes:  Minor flooding is defined as causing minimal or no property damage. Moderate flooding could lead to inundation of structures and roads, causing some evacuations. Major flooding could lead to extensive inundation of structures and roads, causing significant evacuations. By Bea Malsky

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