Nearly 90 million Americans under severe storm threat

LOS ANGELES, July 3 (Xinhua) -- Nearly 90 million people in the United States are under severe storm threat on Monday ahead of the July Fourth holiday, with potential damaging wind gusts, power outages, large hail and possible tornadoes.

Scattered strong to severe thunderstorms and thunderstorm clusters may develop across the Mid-Atlantic Region and portions of the northern Great Plains Monday into Monday night, according to the U.S. National Weather Service.

Severe storm chances are increasing in these regions, the weather service warned.

Severe weather has already battered parts of the United States over the weekend, hitting states including Missouri, Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois and Iowa.

The weather has created difficulties for Americans planning to travel for the Independence Day holiday as lots of flights were delayed or cancelled due to severe weather conditions.

There were also over 214,000 homes and businesses across the East without power early Monday morning, including over 55,000 in Missouri, according to Poweroutage.us.