Powerful storms pose a serious concern for the Midwest this weekend

Multiple rounds of storms over the final weekend of March are putting more than half the U.S. population at risk of severe weather.

Transcript

00:00We're going to talk about many different obstacles that this storm setup is going to bring to us.

00:05The snow and ice to the north will be a big issue here.

00:07It looks like that severe thunderstorm warning just expired up near the edge of the freezing rain.

00:11But farther south, wildfire danger is a concern here as well.

00:15And we're going to be facing the risk of fire danger before the storms roll in in some areas

00:20because the wind will pick up first.

00:22And then we'll see storms, thunderstorms, break out for the Midwest, the Mississippi Valley,

00:27and down to the Gulf Coast, separated by not that great of a distance

00:31between winter and summer-like weather here, warmth versus the ice and snow.

00:36So here we have the risk of severe thunderstorms beginning to break out.

00:40This is really a Saturday evening, and especially you want to draw your attention to the nighttime.

00:43Some of this will be overnight into eastern Kansas, eastern parts of Oklahoma,

00:49and western parts of Missouri into Saturday night.

00:53Damaging wind and hail are the biggest threats here,

00:55but there could also be some isolated tornado threats too.

00:58Let's take a look at this here as this all evolves.

01:00So the current storm system that's been moving through Texas,

01:03that moves farther east and gets out of our way.

01:06Saturday evening, 8 p.m., here are the first few storms breaking out

01:10up there near Manhattan, Kansas, and west of Topeka.

01:13That becomes more widespread deeper into the night.

01:1611 p.m. central, midnight eastern, eastern Kansas, St. Joseph, Missouri, moving into Kansas City.

01:21Severe weather potential with that, and then that rumbles east,

01:24and that disturbance gets kind of pulled north and sort of washes out here over Ontario.

01:29The second stronger storm then rolls in,

01:31and this one's going to bring a greater risk of severe weather.

01:34On Sunday late afternoon and evening, this will be 10 p.m. central time,

01:38gusty thunderstorms across an area here for the Midwest, the lower Ohio Valley,

01:42into parts of the Ozarks.

01:44Damaging wind, hail, and multiple tornadoes will be a concern with this area.

01:48Some of the greatest threats will be in Louisville, Kentucky, Paducah, Kentucky,

01:51Jackson, Tennessee, and Cape Girardeau, Missouri.