A severe thunderstorm rolled into tornado-warned Lubbock, Texas, as seen from 4th Street and Slide Road, on the evening of Thursday, June 5, 2025.

Damaging winds along with a chance of hail and tornadoes are threatening states across the Southeast as a large swath of the country braces for severe weather for the rest of the weekend, forecasters said.

Over 1.5 million people were under tornado watches in Arkansas the morning of June 7. States in the Southern Plains region to the Carolinas are at risk for clusters of strong to severe thunderstorms moving rapidly, the Storm Prediction Center said. The storms will progress eastward throughout the day.

Heavy rainfall is also expected to pose a risk of flash flooding in some of the areas affected by storms, particularly across the mid-South and another cluster of states in New England, the National Weather Service said on June 7. Millions were under flood watches throughout Oklahoma and parts of the Texas Panhandle and southwestern Missouri; as well as parts of New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire.

The multi-day severe weather event could impact over 100 million people in total east of the Rockies through the weekend, AccuWeather reported. Major cities in the storm paths include Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas and Oklahoma City, according to the outlet.

Earlier in the week, east 20 tornadoes ripped through New Mexico into the Texas border town of Lubbock, leaving more than 10,000 residents in West Texas without power, the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, part of the USA TODAY network, reported.

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More severe storms to come

Forecasters said bad weather could cause even more damage on June 8, when widespread storms are expected again across the Southern Plains. The storms could bring wind gusts of 80 to 100 mph, hail 3 inches in diameter and tornadoes, with cities including Oklahoma City and Dallas in the area of most risk, the Storm Prediction Center said.

The flooding risk will persist on June 8, where "drenching strong to severe thunderstorms" are expected, the weather service said.

AccuWeather warned some of the storminess could develop at night, obscuring tornadoes by rain and darkness. Nighttime tornadoes are more deadly than daytime ones, according to the National Weather Service.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Severe weather in weekend forecast: See the map

Reporting by Jeanine Santucci, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect