The Memorial Day weekend kicked off with a multi-day thunderstorm and heavy rainfall system hitting the south-central part of the country, forecasters said. Hundreds of thousands of people were under a severe thunderstorm watch the afternoon of Saturday,

Any pause in storminess after the week-long barrage that ended Wednesday is short-lived, as severe weather and flood threats increase into Memorial Day weekend across a big chunk of the south-central United States.

A large area of severe thunderstorms is forecast into Tuesday night and will overlap areas in the Ohio, Tennessee and middle Mississippi valleys that were hit by deadly and damaging storms, forecasters say.