Severe weather shifts east into the River Valleys

An upper low currently crossing eastern Kansas is forecast to accelerate eastward across Missouri and into the Midwest by tonight.  This system, along with a shortwave trough moving into the Gulf of Mexico will quickly shift a cold front across the southeast.  This front is expected to be span from the Ohio Valley down to the Florida panhandle by Friday morning.

Current Conditions

Currently, the last of the Tornado Watches has expired.   Strong to severe thunderstorms continue to shift east through Louisiana and Mississippi with a few strong storms up in Illinois.  The storms in Illinois should weaken this morning,  but the southern storms across the gulf states will remain locally severe.

Cloud cover from the current storms will help limit some of the day time heating this afternoon.  The Storm prediction center had a moderate risk area in the forecast yesterday.   This has been downgraded to enhanced this morning.  Do not be surprised if a smaller area of moderate risk re-appears this afternoon as the location of the most destabilization becomes obvious.   The entire area should see at least some instability along and ahead of the cold front, which should be along the Mississippi River by Midday. This front will shift east and provide the mechanism by which storms will form.

Severe Risk

New storm development is expected my early to mid afternoon.  Rotation should be limited with height, but speed shear should generate enough rotation to make tornadoes a risk for a large area as rotating supercells and small bow echoes become possible, particularly over the lower Ohio Valley.

Expect hail and strong winds to remain a risk from this afternoon into the overnight hours near the Appalachians.  The risk will shift even further east into the D.C. area by Friday.  The system should be much weaker with a lower risk for severe weather at that time.  The northeast will even be experiencing snow Friday into the weekend.