let's get the latest from our meteorologist sayaka mori. sayaka? >> yes people in the u.s. are suffering from days of severe weather. especially in the central part of the country. we're talking about tornadoes, large hail and damaging winds and heavy rainfall. i want to take you to kansas and missouri to show you the situation. heavy rainfall triggered flash flooding in st. louis, missouri on tuesday. surging waters washed out roads throughout the city. there were reports of hail and fog in other parts of the city. this footage captures a funnel cloud forming in southern kansas on wednesday. there were nine reports of tornadoes on tuesday nationwide eight reports on wednesday, and 14 reports so far on thursday. and hail the size of a dvrdd was reported in arkansas on thursday. we still have a very intense low pressure system here. this is the boundary of hot air from the ocean and very cold air from the north. so because of the difference in temperature, it's still packing lots of energy enough to cause more severe weather from the southern plains through the deep south, u

sayaka mori joins us with an update on this hour's world weather. >> the dangerous season has started in the united states. and u.s. is the number one tornado country in the world. the second is canada. and spring is the most tornado active seenason. we had eight reports of tornados in oklahoma, kansas and missouri on wednesday and hail the size of a grapefruit in missouri, that's 10 centimeters in diameter. very dangerous situation is happening over the mid part of the ups. what's happening that is we have a very intense system that is fueled by three different air masses. one is from the gulf of mexico which is hot and humid. and the other is hot and dry from the rockies. and the other is quote cold air from the north. so quite intensive rain and also showers are happening from the southern plains into the great lakes region. even tornados are not out of the question into your thursday. especially in the afternoon hours. 94 million people could be affected by the risk of tornados. and then as we go into friday, the east and southern portions of the united states will be battered by

our meteorologist sayaka mori is here with an update. >> it's a strong low pressure system has been affecting southeastern portions of europe like italy and the balkan peninsula, as well as turkey with stormy conditions. this system is a very strong one and also slow-moving system so it has been causing stormy weather in a similar location. and also this is packing very cold air in the upper atmosphere so the mountains are seeing snow and because of temperature difference between the sky and the ground severe weather, especially thunderstorms, are happening over the same location. now, there is a chance for tornadoes, actually in areas shaded in red. also thunderstorms and strong gusts will likely happen in the area shaded in yellow means there's that slight risk for severe weather. this is your outlook on your tuesday. very different story across the west. beautiful sunny conditions for the western continent. very good conditions for many people but those who have hay fever it could be a tough condition. now across south america, floods have occurred in bolivia. to give you an idea i want to

. >>> sayaka mori starts off with one of the world's hotspots for severe conditions.sayaka. >> severe weather has been happening over the united states since last thursday. we are talking about tornadoes, damaging winds and also widespread flooding. i want to take you to several areas in the eastern united states to show you the damage done by the severe weather. storms that damaged homes and toppled trees through the u.s. southeast and midwest on sunday. a woman was killed when winds blew onto her home in atlanta, georgia. powerful winds also knocked down trees and power lines in other parts of the state. in ohio a woman died after a large tree uprooted and unexpectedly fell onto her car. now, the severe weather maker has widely shifted east. so severe weather is still happening over the new england states into thursday noon. and back behind it frigid air is coming in. so widespread late-season snow is falling over eastern canada. some areas may see an additional 40 centimeters into thursday. and then across the south, very different story happening over miami. brush

well it seems like the weather here in tokyo can't make up its mind whether to warm up or not, as sayaka mori from the weather desk tells us. >> it feels like may here in japan. but tomorrow, yes, it's a different story. it's going to be more like wynton. japan is at the boundary of cold air, and also summer warmth. and the cold air will likely shift to the south so we'll see lower than average temperatures on tuesday in tokyo. and also we are going to be seeing some showers. to the north of the front there's cold air, so even snowfall in northern china. take a look at some footage coming out of the area. winter weather is still covering the northern portions of china. this area is often 9 centimeters of snow. this led to traffic disruptions for residents, which included the suspension of about 180 intercity buses. temperatures in the region also dropped on average between 6 and 10 degrees celsius. so we have snow alerts posted for northern china, but also we are seeing some heat advisories posted in southern china, so temperatures over 30 degrees on monday. and in between, there's severe wea

sayaka mori from our weather desk has the details. >> yes, we will see a huge jump in temperature on thursday. so that's good news. but actually still on the bit chilly side. if you want real warmth wait until the weekend. now we saw sleet in tokyo. last time we saw spring sleet was five years ago. fukushima saw snow as well. i want to take you to video to show you the situation. gives you a beautiful combination of the wintry and spring scenes. people in central japan are surprised at the return of wintry weather. in fukushima prefecture eight centimeters of snow has fallen. temperatures were around zero degrees during the daytime hours. that's much lower than midwinter. now precipitation has let up in fukushima and temperatures will rebound to more typical levels in the fukushima as we go through next couple of days. now, rain will be moving out from the can toekanto region on thursday so clear conditions but because a cold air mass is still blanketing many parts of japan, the korean peninsula and northern china temperatures are a couple degrees lower where they should be during th