A volatile weather system is poised to unleash severe thunderstorms across the central United States on Sunday, with the potential for tornadoes, large hail and damaging winds. Nearly 175 million people from Illinois to eastern Texas and beyond could be affected,

Sunday will likely be the most active day for severe storms this weekend, as the threat area stretches across much of the Mississippi, Ohio and Tennessee Valleys, Tonks said. Over a dozen states may be at risk of severe weather Sunday, AccuWeather predicted.

A shift in tornadic activity in the last 35 years puts population center in the Southeast in the bullseye of what some researchers called a new Tornado Alley.

A powerful storm system that tore across the United States in recent days is winding down Monday, but in its wake are devastated communities across states hit with violent tornadoes, wildfires and dust storms spun off by the massive system.

An impactful storm will hug the Pacific coast with wind and rain, but the storm will trigger the most prolific thunderstorm activity of the year so far, and perhaps recent years for the Northwest into Friday.

NWS’s Storm Prediction Center warned that the storm approaching Washington could cause a tornado. Just how uncommon is that occurrence?

As a result of robust late afternoon and evening thunderstorms, NOAA’s severe weather forecasters have inched the level two risk of tornadoes just into southern Michigan. They have also sizably moved north the level 1 risk of an isolated tornado.

Severe storms are expected to move into Oklahoma Saturday night and during the overnight hours, bringing a hail and low tornado threat to the state.