ST. LOUIS — Tornado warnings and baseball-sized hail headed into the St. Louis region on Wednesday afternoon as yet another system of severe weather approaches.

A Weather Impact Alert has been issued for Wednesday for the storms, as well as Friday and Saturday as continual heavy rain is expected to trigger possible flooding around the region.

The coming system is expected to drop between 2 to 10 inches of rain in the area Wednesday afternoon through Sunday, with communities in southern portions of the region getting the most precipitation.

The St. Louis metro area is under an enhanced, or a level 3 of 5 for severe weather, with the western part of the viewing area under a slightly lesser (slight, 2 out of 5) threat, while areas to our east are under a moderate (4 out of 5), with parts areas just to our southeast under the highest threat level.

By lunchtime into the early afternoon, the atmosphere should recover enough to initiate thunderstorms. If enough energy is available, the conditions appear favorable for a few strong to severe storms to develop. Gusty winds are the largest threat since winds outside of thunderstorms will already be gusting from 40 to 50 mph.