Scattered to widespread severe thunderstorms are expected to develop across parts of the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic on Monday, with the potential for strong tornadoes and significant damaging winds from South Carolina to Maryland, according to the National Weather Service.

The Storm Prediction Center has placed much of the region under an Enhanced Risk, level 3 of 5, for severe weather. The outlook stretches from South Carolina through North Carolina and Virginia into parts of southern Pennsylvania.

Forecasters say the greatest threat may focus on the eastern Piedmont and coastal plain from South Carolina to Maryland from around midday into the afternoon hours on Monday.

The Storm Prediction Center also noted that parts of the region could be upgraded in later forecasts to a Moderate Risk, level 4 of 5. If that occurs, it would mark the first Moderate Risk severe weather outlook issued this year.

Meteorologists say the severe weather threat will develop as a large storm system moves eastward out of the Mississippi Valley, Ohio Valley, and Tennessee Valley. A cold front associated with the system is expected to sweep across the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic on Monday.

Ahead of the front, warm and moisture-rich air from the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean will surge northward, creating favorable conditions for powerful thunderstorms.

Storms could already be developing by Monday morning. Forecasters expect the atmosphere to become increasingly unstable during the day as temperatures rise, potentially allowing storms to intensify and rotate.

The Storm Prediction Center said the setup may support a combination of broken supercells and line-embedded supercells — storm types capable of producing strong tornadoes along with widespread damaging wind gusts.

Forecasters cautioned that the exact severity of the outbreak will depend on several factors, including how much surface heating occurs and how early-day storms evolve ahead of the main frontal boundary.

Severe weather is also expected earlier in the event. On Sunday, damaging winds and tornadoes are forecast from parts of the South-Central United States into the Midwest and Ohio Valley.

The greatest threat Sunday evening appears likely to develop from the Ark-La-Miss region into the Lower Ohio Valley, where forecasters say a couple of strong tornadoes and widespread damaging wind swaths are possible before the system pushes east overnight.

By early Monday, the severe weather threat is expected to expand toward the Gulf Coast and southern Appalachians before the more concentrated risk develops farther east from the Carolinas into the Mid-Atlantic.