At least 27 people are dead after tornadoes and severe weather hit Kentucky, Missouri and Virginia beginning on Friday, May 16, as states brace for more bad weather.

The nationwide tornado threat is expected to downshift by Wednesday, with several relatively quiet days in the offing. Late May is still peak season, however, so pockets of severe weather could begin cropping up by the weekend into next week across the Southern Plains.

"A maturing central U.S. storm system is expected to produce another round of dangerous severe weather and instances of flash flooding today," the National Weather Service warned Monday. The forecast discussion added that "from a broader perspective," locally heavy rain was forecast to reach from the northern Plains to Texas.

Recovery operations are underway, and first responders are continuing their heroic efforts to search for survivors among the countless piles of destroyed homes and businesses in Kentucky and Missouri,

Portsmouth-based Mercy Chefs, a disaster relief organization, is providing aid in Kentucky and Missouri following a deadly tornado outbreak in the region.

"Severe thunderstorms capable of all severe hazards remain possible this evening across portions of the central and southern Plains," a forecast from the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center (SPC) said. "Several strong to intense tornadoes are possible," it added.

Dozens of people lost their lives after tornadoes swept through Kentucky and Missouri over the weekend as the communities impacted were forced to grapple

The Friday tornadoes started in St. Louis, Missouri. Then, as a forecaster told the Herald-Leader, “We just kept on getting more supercells with more tornado warnings.”

A violent, tornado-spawning storm system tore across the central US, leaving at least 25 people dead in Missouri and southeastern Kentucky as it cut a path of destruction through several states.