Severe weather to keep slamming south-central U.S. through midweek

More lives and property will be at risk as the severe weather onslaught continues across the south-central United States through midweek before the dangers shift eastward on Thursday.

As AccuWeather has been warning about since last week, it has been and will continue to be a dangerous few days across the nation's Heartland with violent storms to the south and flooding rainfall to the north.

Nearly two dozen preliminary tornadoes were reported on Sunday from Texas to Nebraska, with most of the tornado activity occurring in Kansas.

The severe weather risk into Wednesday will target some of these same areas that were hit on Sunday and again on Monday.

"Tuesday and Wednesday may be big days for severe weather including strong tornadoes," said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski.

Coverage of the storms into Tuesday night is expected to stretch from southeastern Colorado and far eastern New Mexico through western and central Texas, Oklahoma and into southern Kansas.

Dodge City, Kansas; to Amarillo and Midland, Texas; and Oklahoma City will lie within the heart of this zone where damaging winds, large hail, downpours and tornadoes will all be possibilities.

Motorists through this area, including on stretches of interstates 20, 27, 35 and 40, will need to be wary of these threats, in addition to the poor visibility that the downpours will bring.

The hail can be large enough to inflict significant damage on cars and siding and injure anyone who has not taken proper shelter.

Drenching, gusty storms can also pulse through eastern Kansas and central Missouri on Tuesday, heightening the risk of flooding.

Flash flooding was already ongoing across southeastern Kansas on Monday night, with many northeastern counties under flash flood warnings.

The severe storm risk will slowly march eastward at midweek, targeting the I-35 corridor, mainly between I-10 and I-70.

"The severe weather threat on both Wednesday and Thursday will shift away from the wide-open spaces of the High Plains to the more heavily populated areas on the lower Plains and the Mississippi and Ohio valleys," Sosnowski said.

San Antonio; Dallas; Oklahoma City; Kansas City, Missouri; and Little Rock, Arkansas; are among the larger metro areas that will be at risk for damaging storms on Wednesday and Wednesday night.

Similar to Tuesday, all modes of severe weather will be possible, including strong tornadoes.

It will be vital for people throughout the areas at risk to stay aware of the rapidly changing weather conditions.

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The risk of flash flooding will increase with each round of thunderstorms that moves through the South Central states.

A push of drier air will end the severe weather risk across the central and southern Plains on Thursday, while pushing it farther east.

Thursday's threat zone will stretch along an approximate 1,300-mile-long swath from the lower Great Lakes to south-central Texas.

By Thursday, the threat of storms with damaging wind gusts, large hail and flooding rainfall may be substantial, according to Sosnowski.

While the risk of tornadoes will be lower this day, an isolated spin up or two cannot be ruled out.

Keep checking back for updates on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.