Strong storms expected this afternoon, evening

CHICAGO (AP) - Thunderstorms with winds up to 60 mph and perhaps large hail are headed to the Chicago area.

National Weather Service meteorologist Kevin Donofrio says thunderstorms may arrive Sunday afternoon or early Sunday night and leave about a half inch of rain as they rumble through the region.

On Sunday morning, a similar though not quite so powerful band of storms rolled through the region. They come as large swaths of the central and southern U.S. are bracing for a heat wave over the next few days.

It's a similar story in the swath of land stretching from western Illinois into eastern Iowa. After a storm moved through early Sunday morning that prompted the weather service to issue a tornado warning, another storm with winds up to 60 mph was expected to hit the area later Sunday. But weather service meteorologist David Cousins says no tornado warning has been issued for that storm.