Updated May 20, 2025 at 01:42 AM ET
Another round of dangerous weather hit parts of the Midwest Monday and will reach areas in the Southeast on Tuesday, as recovery efforts continued following a deadly bout of severe weather that affected multiple states over the weekend, resulting in at least 27 fatalities.
“A maturing central U.S. storm system is producing dangerous storms this afternoon and expected to continue through this evening,” the National Weather Service said Monday. The NWS said the risk of severe weather and flash flooding will move across the Mississippi Valley and South on Tuesday. The severe weather could move across the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic on Wednesday, the service added.
Potentially millions of people in central and eastern Oklahoma and far northwest Arkansas were at risk from numerous severe thunderstorms expected Monday, according to the National Weather Service. The agency had classified the threat level of these storms as a 4 out of 5 risk.
Those storms are likely to rapidly intensify in scale and become severe, producing strong and damaging wind gusts, large hail and powerful tornadoes. Oklahoma City, Tulsa and other areas in Oklahoma and Kansas are expected to be at the highest risk by mid-afternoon on Monday, according to the forecast from the Storm Prediction Center.
This comes on the heels of powerful storms and tornadoes that swept through the South and Midwest overnight last Friday. In hard-hit Kentucky, the National Weather Service estimates a tornado with winds reaching approximately 150 miles per hour winds destroyed several buildings. At least 19 people have died with the death toll rising by one after the confirmation of a woman’s death, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear announced. Ten people remain hospitalized due to storm-related injuries from the storm, Beshear said.
Residents are currently working to clear debris from collapsed buildings and homes, and trying to patch up damage where they can, while bracing for the possibility of another storm.
As the severe weather moves out of Oklahoma and Kansas overnight on Monday, it is expected to shift further east into the Mississippi Valley, Ohio and Tennessee valleys and into Kentucky by Tuesday.
Western Kentucky and Tennessee as well as northern Mississippi and Alabama, face the greatest threats for severe thunderstorms with heavy rainfall, the National Weather Service said.
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