Severe storms seen in some tornado-hit states

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Severe storms with thunder, hail, snow and possibly tornadoes were expected to strike the Midwest and South on Tuesday, including towns still staggering from last week's deadly weather, forecasters said.

At least 45 people were killed across the southern United States in three days of storms last week, nearly half of them in North Carolina alone, the highest storms-related death toll in more than three years.

"Unfortunately, some of those towns could be struck by strong storms this week," AccuWeather.com meteorologist Bill Deger said.

"Many of the thunderstorms will produce powerful wind gusts, driving downpours and frequent lightning strikes," Deger said. "Some of the storms may produce large hail."

Through Tuesday afternoon, rain and thunderstorms were expected to be "fairly widespread" from Arkansas through to Cleveland, Ohio, spreading to northern Louisiana, Alabama and Tennessee overnight, weather.com said.

Deger said Little Rock, Arkansas, Springfield, Missouri, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Cincinnati, and Nashville, Tennessee, were at "especially high risk" for severe storms.

The National Weather Service issued tornado warnings on Tuesday afternoon for southwest Missouri including Branson, and for parts of eastern Oklahoma where a tornado could be produced "at any time" as well as "hail up to baseball size."

The weather service also issued a tornado warning for northwest Arkansas.

It also said conditions were favorable for tornadoes to develop in northeast Texas through parts of Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri and Illinois through Tuesday night, the National Weather Service said.

Farther north, a band of wet heavy snow was expected from northern Iowa, through southeast Minnesota, and from southeast to northeast across Wisconsin, the National Weather Service said. Up to 8 inches of snow were expected in Wisconsin.

South central North Dakota received some snow on Tuesday and the National Weather Service was forecasting wet and heavy snow for southwestern North Dakota.

Flooding is widespread in North Dakota as snow slowly melts on ground saturated from last year's rains. It is most severe in the Red River Valley, which extends into Minnesota.

In sharp contrast, drought conditions in Texas were producing wildfires moving toward more populated areas on the outskirts of the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area, officials said.

(Reporting by Barbara Goldberg, Rod Nickel and David Bailey; Editing by Greg McCune)