Morning Express with Robin Meade

I sure hope you didn’t want to sleep-in this morning in Louisiana, Mississippi or Tennessee -- because man, it is loud!

A strong line of booming thunderstorms is riding along the leading edge of a low-level jet stream this morning around the Gulf Coast.

It was 80 degrees on Monday, but there will be half a foot or more of snow Wednesday: Denver in spring is shaping up to have more wild twists than a soap opera!

A powerful cold front is driving eastward Wednesday, switching heavy rain over to snow from Colorado and Wyoming to Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin. There are winter storm warnings and winter weather advisories for most of the region. The bull's eye of snow looks to be north and west of Denver where the east-facing slopes could get 10 to 20 inches. Another bull's eye will be around Minneapolis, where locals could see 5 to 10 inches of snow.

Meteorologist Bonnie Schneider is filling in for Bob Van Dillen on Morning Express with Robin Meade today. Get prepared for any kind of conditions with her book "Extreme Weather."

More than 34 million Americans may be impacted by severe weather Wednesday. This includes the potential for tornadoes to develop as well as large hail.

The strong early Spring storm continues to plow eastward through the Mississippi Valley and into the South and East. Heavy rain is marching out of the Gulf of Mexico through New Orleans into Memphis, Nashville, Louisville, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Detroit. The back side has heavy freezing rain, sleet and snow near Minneapolis, Green Bay and northern Michigan.

Warm air is ahead of this storm system, with broken heat records in Washington DC and Baltimore yesterday. Both cities hit 91 degrees!

Tornadoes ripped apart homes and knocked down trees in at least two states on Wednesday, but the threat of severe weather is far from over.

There was damage all over the St. Louis, Missouri, area. A tornado damaged at least 24 homes and left thousands of people in the dark in the suburb of Hazelwood.

A late-season snowmaker is moving eastward this morning.

The parent storm center is over the Ohio Valley and the energy is starting to transfer to the storm off the Virginia/North Carolina coast. A big snow burst dumped on the D.C./Baltimore area just before sunrise, and the whole thing is moving into Philly and NYC.