Thunderstorms, damaging winds and large hail are expected in the Plains starting on Monday before moving across parts of Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, the South and the Midwest, the National Weather Service said.
Severe thunderstorms are expected mainly on Monday night across the southern and central Great Plains. Tornadoes are possible, the Weather Service said.
Marc Chenard, a meteorologist at the Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Md., said large hail was the biggest threat from the storms.
The storms could produce baseball-size hail and winds of 60 to 80 miles per hour, the Weather Service said.
“There will be some areas of heavy rain, as well,” Mr. Chenard said. “There could be some localized areas of flash flooding.”
Storms are possible on Monday from Texas to South Dakota, with a higher risk of severe weather from northern Texas to western Oklahoma and parts of Nebraska and Kansas.
One area under an enhanced risk — a level three out of five — covers a population of more than 1.5 million people and include the cities of Lincoln, Neb., Manhattan, Kan., and Grand Island, Neb.
A larger area of the Plains was under a slight risk — a level two out of five — for severe weather, covering millions of other people.
On Tuesday, the storms are expected to move across the eastern part of the Plains into the central states, posing a risk from Northeast Texas into Iowa and Illinois. Several rounds of severe storms are expected during the day in Illinois, Iowa and Missouri.
Mr. Chenard said that tornadoes were possible on Monday and Tuesday.
“There is not a really high threat on Monday, but there is some anywhere from North Texas up into Nebraska,” he said. “And on Tuesday, a slightly higher risk from northern Missouri into central Iowa.”
As the storms hit the central states, there will also be hot, dry and windy weather that puts Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas at high wildfire risk.
More than 1.7 million people were in an area deemed at “critical” risk of wildfire on Monday, including those in El Paso and Las Cruces, N.M.