ST. LOUIS – Let’s get ready for a very active 48 hours of weather. Two rounds of thunderstorms are expected on Tuesday, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, with a brief lull in the action around lunchtime.

The morning wave will impact the region between sunrise and 10 a.m. The morning round should be a bit more scattered. Some storms could produce some larger hail along with pockets of heavy rain.

The second round of rain and storms is expected to move north into the St. Louis region Tuesday afternoon. This round could produce damaging wind gusts and hail as well as a brief, weak tornado or two.

Tuesday will be windy with temperatures in the 50s. Even non-thunderstorm winds could gust to 40 mph. Scattered showers and storms will linger into Tuesday evening.

As our large storm system pulls away to the east, wrap-around showers are expected to move in during the early hours Wednesday as much colder air returns on gusty northwest winds. The last of the rain will likely switch to pockets of snow as temperatures fall into the 30s Wednesday morning. With the wet ground and how warm we were Monday, this should only lead to some slush on grassy surfaces.

A wind advisory has been issued for Wednesday from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Strong northwest winds are expected all day with occasional gusts in excess of 45 mph. These winds could blow around lawn ornaments and trash cans and blow down some tree limbs. They could even cause isolated power outages.

Winds ease into the early hours of Thursday. It will be a sunny and quieter day Thursday with clouds returning into Thursday night.

Heads up! Illinois has planned to have its Statewide Tornado Drill on Tuesday at 10 a.m. Missouri is expected to have theirs Wednesday at 11 a.m. As of this writing, it is unclear if ongoing active weather may delay those test runs.