A major severe weather outbreak is expected to impact a large swathe of the central and eastern United States this week, bringing the risk of tornadoes, damaging winds, hail, and flash flooding. The storm system,

NOAA predicts a drier spring for the Southwest and wetter season for the Northwest and Appalachia. Punxsutawney Phil may have signaled six more weeks of winter, but the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has its own predictions for spring.

AP Elsewhere, a polar vortex took over from Montana to southern Texas ... taking direct aim at the East Coast, threatening to dump heavy snow and some ice in several states.

This week’s winter storm comes on the heel of a storm in the Kentucky-area that brought flash flooding and killed at least 10 people.