Tracking strong storms late tonight, waves of rain through the weekend

TONIGHT: Increasing clouds with strong storms overnight. Storms could produce hail and damaging winds through early Wednesday morning. Winds could gust to 35 mph overnight.

TOMORROW: Scattered storms early, with a few severe storms through late afternoon. Warm and very breezy with highs in the upper 70s and south wind gusts up to 45 mph.

EXTENDED: Strong storms are expected to develop ahead of a cold front late tonight out across Kansas and northwest Missouri, starting out as discrete cells with a large hail threat, followed by a line of storms that could produce damaging winds and hail through Wednesday morning. Those storms begin to decay by mid-morning, with new development possible by late afternoon, especially east of Highway 54. These storms quickly race east, but would have the potential for large hail, damaging winds, and tornadoes. The threat for severe weather will likely end before the evening rush. We'll be dry for the rest of Wednesday night with the front parked to our south, but it looks to lift back north between Thursday and Friday and hang out along the Missouri/Arkansas border, bringing with it rounds of widespread rain beginning late Thursday morning and continuing on and off through Sunday morning. Rain totals will range from about 1.5" north of Highway 24 to 5" along I-44, with dangerous flash flooding expected across southern and southeast Missouri into the Ohio Valley. By the weekend, temperatures dip back below average with highs in the lower 50s. We'll likely experience a freeze between Sunday night and Monday night with lows near 32 degrees.