While the return of a multi-day severe weather event is not expected, rounds of rain and thunderstorms will keep the central United States unsettled this week.

Anyone with outdoor activities will have to keep an eye to the sky and be ready to move indoors or prepare for alternative plans.

Even though the risk for widespread damaging winds, hail and tornadoes will be low, any thunderstorm brings the danger for lightning. As soon as thunder is heard, that risk is present.

After rattling the Ohio Valley to end the weekend, showers and thunderstorms will focus on the central and southern Appalachians on Monday. At the same time, warmth will surge back across the Plains.

That will set the stage for a storm from the northern Rockies to spark thunderstorms across the northern High Plains later Monday.

A few of these thunderstorms can turn severe with damaging winds, hail and frequent lightning in the afternoon and evening. Rapid City, South Dakota, and Scottsbluff, Nebraska, are among the cities at risk.

Any rain, however, would be beneficial with many of these communities in the midst of a moderate drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

The storm will continue to push rain and thunderstorms over more of the central U.S. Tuesday into Wednesday. At midweek, thunderstorms are expected to rattle Des Moines, Iowa, St. Louis and Chicago. Rain will fall north of the thunderstorms, dampening Minneapolis and Duluth, Minnesota.

The unsettled weather is expected to struggle to drop south of Interstate 40, bringing no relief from the building warmth in Dallas and Houston.

As the showers and thunderstorms shift to the eastern Great Lakes and Ohio Valley on Thursday, two more rounds of unsettled weather are expected to streak from the High Plains to the Midwest late in the week and next weekend.

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AccuWeather Storm Warning Meteorologist Richard Schraeger does not anticipate an increase in severe weather after Monday.

“If there is any severe weather during the upcoming week, I would expect it to be mainly isolated activity,” he said. “The type of pattern we are heading into supports more steady rain and isolated thunder rather than strong to severe storms.”

One area that may be contending with locally strong thunderstorms at midweek is the vicinity of Missouri.

Schraeger also noted the lack of moisture coming from plants (known as evapotranspiration) as another reason for a lid being put on severe weather in the coming days.

"Planting of annual crops across much of these areas has been pushed back a few weeks due to the prolonged cold this spring," he said. "That limits the amount of locally enhanced moisture across much of these states."

The upcoming bouts of rain and thunderstorms can further interfere with field work, as well as other outdoor plans. This includes cleanup from the recent onslaught of severe weather.

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