Severe thunderstorms with potential for tornadoes forecast for southwestern Illinois
The dense fog across the St. Louis area early Thursday was an indicator of the severe spring weather that may be yet to come.
The National Weather Service issued a Hazardous Weather Outlook early Thursday that includes severe thunderstorms for the region and a warning of the potential for tornadoes, damaging winds and large hail.
The outlook included Bond, Clinton, Madison, Monroe, Randolph , St. Clair and Washington counties.
Severe thunderstorms are expected through Thursday afternoon and early evening. Jared Maples, a meteorologist at the weather service’s St. Louis office, said the metro-east will feel the system most from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. and that it should end by 8 p.m.
Maples said that a storm system over Kansas earlier Thursday morning was moving into central Missouri and southwestern Illinois. Though those initial storms may bring some small hail, they aren’t the most concerning, he said.
It’s a second round of storms Thursday afternoon as the first round swings eastward that will bring “all the ingredients that could come together” for hail and high winds, Maples said. That round will stretch from southeast Missouri across southern Illinois and over into Kentucky.
“Really this is something we’re going to have to keep an eye on into the morning to see how it evolves,” he said.
Tornadoes are possible because the high winds enhance that risk, Maples said.
The National Weather Service warned residents to have multiple ways of getting weather alerts and to move indoors if threatening weather approaches the area.
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