A round of severe thunderstorms with damaging wind, large hail, and several tornadoes is expected this afternoon and evening from southern Arkansas northward to southern Illinois and Indiana. Metropolitan areas such as Memphis and Nashville, Tennessee, Louisville, Kentucky, Indianapolis, Indiana, and Cincinnati, Ohio are at risk for a round of dangerous storms.
The greatest risk for a few tornadoes will reside from southeastern Arkansas northward to Memphis and Nashville, Tennessee, and up toward Paducah, Kentucky through the early evening hours. Damaging winds greater than 60 mph are possible in many of the thunderstorms that develop, with the strongest storms bringing localized gusts in excess of 80 mph.
Travel delays, both on the ground and in the air, are likely as the dangerous storms cross the region. Interstates that are at risk of being impacted by severe storms include: I-24, I-40, I-55, I-65, and I-69.
This pre-Christmas severe weather outbreak is due to a strengthening area of low pressure moving towards the western Great Lakes with a cold front that extends southward into a record warm and humid air mass.
The threat for severe storms will end by later this evening as precipitation shifts off to the east.