A couple of rounds of severe storms could sweep through mainly northern and central Missouri Tuesday evening and through Wednesday.

This graphic from the National Weather Service shows the projected severe weather risk for Tuesday evening and Wednesday.

This graphic from the National Weather Service shows the projected severe weather risk for Tuesday evening and Wednesday (click for larger version).

Meteorologist Dan Hawblitzel says damaging winds are the main threat.

“For tonight at least it doesn’t look like we’ll be dealing with quite the magnitude of winds that we’ve seen with some of these past storms, including the ones last night. The winds tonight should be fairly localized in nature. Maybe 40 to 50 miles per hour. Can’t rule out a very isolated gust up to 60 or 65,” said Hawblitzel.

He said storms Wednesday will be perhaps more worrisome.

“These are going to be late tomorrow night into early Thursday. Those carry a better chance of being more widespread and stronger as well, so better chance for heavy rain and some damaging winds as well, with those,” said Hawblitzel.

He said with much of Missouri’s ground already saturated from recent rain, flash flooding is a concern with these storms.

“Especially across areas that saw that heavy rain [Monday] night. That’s mainly going to be close to and north of the Missouri River in northwest Missouri, especially up toward the St. Joe area where they saw two to three inches, those are the areas that can’t really handle too much more rain and we’ll have to watch those locations for possible flooding late tonight and tomorrow,” said Hawblitzel.

Tornadoes can’t be ruled out but are not considered to be a primary threat with these storms.