Storm forecast: Parts of the US are facing the greatest threat of tornadoes and thunderstorms in months

CNN
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Parts of the central U.S. face the greatest threat of thunderstorms in months on Wednesday as the second severe storm season gets underway.

A cold front from the west will converge with extreme fall warmth across the central and eastern United States, likely producing severe thunderstorms and possibly strong tornadoes.

The Storm Prediction Center has therefore issued a level 3 out of 5 threat for severe thunderstorms. Over 4 million people, including those in Kansas City and Tulsa, Oklahoma, are in this highest threat area.

This is the first Level 3 or higher threat for Kansas City and other areas in the region since mid-July.

Storms will begin early Wednesday afternoon but will become stronger and more widespread late afternoon and into the early evening. Potential threats include damaging wind gusts, large hail and some tornadoes, some of which could be EF2 or stronger.

A less significant but more common level 2 of 5 The threat of severe thunderstorms extends from northern Texas to southern Iowa and includes Dallas and Oklahoma City. The threat of tornadoes is less severe here, but isolated tornadoes could still form, and damaging winds and large hail continue to pose a serious threat to more than 12 million people.

Concern about the tornado threat is greater considering how productive the year was for twisters in the United States. The number of tornadoes reported so far this year is the second highest on record, trailing only the 2,156 in 2011.

The severe weather on Wednesday is typical of autumn. Severe thunderstorms occur most often in the spring and summer, but a second wave of dangerous storms and tornadoes occurs in the fall and winter as cold air from the north often collides with warmer, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico.

But the threat of tornadoes so far this fall has been anything but typical. The majority of tornadoes came from Hurricanes Helene and Milton.

Milton produced dozens of tornadoes in Florida – an extraordinary amount for a tropical system and the state – including the state's strongest tornado in more than half a century and an EF3 tornado that killed several people in Polk County.