Forecasters are closely monitoring the developing weather pattern and the potential for severe thunderstorms to ignite and tornadoes that could be spawned across portions of the southern and eastern United States during the upcoming Easter weekend.

A slow-moving storm will continue to crawl through the Southwest states this week, and the forward movement of that storm will be a key factor in determining whether severe weather erupts or mostly benign thunderstorms pop up instead by Saturday and Sunday.

“Should the storm move steadily across the Deep South late this week and this weekend and join up with a second storm that is forecast to drop southeastward across the Midwest, then a violent outbreak of thunderstorms could result with the full spectrum of severe weather possible,” AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Brett Anderson said.

This more grim outlook appears to be more likely at this time as opposed to a much more suppressed thunderstorm event limited to the Deep South.

Colder air will sweep through much of the Central and Eastern states prior to the end of this week, but it will not hold on long enough to limit the return flow of warmth and high humidity levels for this weekend.

“Instead, the rebound following the blast of cold air could make matters worse in terms of tornado risk,” according to AccuWeather Chief On-Air Meteorologist Bernie Rayno.

The setup could produce everything from several tornadoes to damaging wind gusts, large hail and flash flooding.

The first storms are likely to erupt in portions of central and eastern Texas to the Mississippi Delta region on Saturday afternoon and evening.

The storms on Saturday are likely to be just the beginning of what may end up being one of the more significant severe weather and tornado outbreaks of 2020 in the South.

The main severe weather threat day is likely to be on Easter Sunday. This day, the storm threat will be advancing slowly across the lower Mississippi Valley and perhaps the Tennessee Valley areas.

The storms are likely to then continue eastward across the southern Appalachians during Sunday night and may continue to produce severe weather for a time on Monday along part of the southern Atlantic seaboard before being swept out to sea.

The risk comes around the peak time of year for tornadoes in much of the Southeast states.

AccuWeather meteorologists will continue to keep an eye on the evolving weather pattern and update the severe weather risks in the coming days.