We want to begin with the severe weather that is making its way across the southern part of the country. While residents along the Mississippi river are forced to evacuate ahead of rising floodwaters. Nearly twenty-two million Americans from central Texas to the Florida Peninsula are in the path of significant storms, including heavy rains damaging winds, and possible tornadoes. Further north, in five states across the Midwest, spring snowmelt is leading some of the worst flooding along the Mississippi River in more than twenty years. Communities in Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin are busy filling sandbags as water levels are nearing all time records and are still rising.

The Texas governor isn’t taking any chances. He activated state emergency response crews as severe weather hammers Texas. Tonight, the Lone Star State is getting slammed again but severe storms. In West Texas, the National Weather Service is surveying the overnight storm damage east of Lubbock. Powerful thunderstorms brough baseball size hail and winds up to ninety miles per hour smashing windows and denting car roofs. It was a similar story for residents in central Florida yesterday. A rare blanket of hail turning yards into layers of ice. To the north, it’s a wet and soggy mess. From north to south, melting snow has triggered flood warnings all along the Mississippi river. In the town of Wabasha, Minnesota, streets are under water. Melting snow in the Sierra Nevada has communities in California bracing for major flooding, brought on by near-record warm temperature. And Yosemite National Park will be off-limits to visitors starting Friday with temperature expected to be fifteen degrees above normal, leading to dangerous flooding.