The NWS on Monday warned the violent storms would hit parts of Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee, with heavy wind damage expected.

The NWS said the storms could produce powerful “long-track” tornadoes – twisters that stay on the ground far longer than normal tornadoes.

The severe storms are being triggered by the collision of a cold front barrelling down from the Rocky Mountains and pushing across the central plains, with warmer, moist air pushing north from the Gulf of Mexico, said Andrew Orrison, an NWS meteorologist based in College Park, Maryland.

He said tornadoes with gusts of 179kph and above could break out from the lower and middle Mississippi valley area into portions of the southeast.

He added there is even a chance for the most powerful twisters – with winds over 322kph – hitting the area.