Around 26 million people could be affected by severe storms moving eastward across the Gulf Coast states today, April 8.
The National Weather Service says storms with "damaging wind gusts and hail will be possible from Georgia and eastern Tennessee northeastward across the Carolinas into southeastern Virginia on Monday, as well as over northern Mississippi and western Alabama."
"Spring has arrived and severe weather season has arrived," CNN meteorologist Pedram Javaheri said.
Javaheri said portions of Mississippi, parts of Georgia — including Atlanta — as well as Charlotte, Richmond and Raleigh could be affected by the storms.
He also warned of a flooding risk from expected heavy rain in the already-saturated Mississippi River valley.
Later in the week, another storm system is expected to move out of the Rockies and dump snow from Colorado toward the Great Lakes.
The storm could bring blizzard conditions to parts of the Upper Plains Wednesday through Thursday, CNN meteorologist Michael Guy said.
Along with this storm system is a drastic wave of temperatures in the northern tier of the country ranging from 10 to 20 degrees above normal to 15 to 20 degrees below normal through the end of the week, Guy said.
