Tornado Watch until 6 p.m. Tuesday evening

A Tornado Watch has been issued until 6 p.m. Tuesday evening for portions of the FOX23 viewing area.

This includes southeast Illinois, parts of Tennessee, and western Kentucky.

Primary threats include a few tornadoes likely with a couple of intense tornadoes possible, widespread damaging winds and isolated significant gusts to 75 mph likely and scattered large hail and isolated very large hail events to 2″ in diameter likely.

Scattered, isolated storms are expected to develop along shifting winds in southeast Missouri and southeast Illinois early this afternoon. Additional storms will form and move into western Kentucky through the afternoon. With this setup, expect fast-moving storms capable of producing tornadoes (a couple of which could be strong/EF-2+) , large hail 1-2″ in diameter and damaging wind gusts 60-75 mph.

A Tornado Watch means conditions are favorable for tornadoes and severe thunderstorms in and close to the watch area. People in these areas should be on the lookout for threatening weather conditions and possible warnings to come.

Stay tuned for the latest from the FOX 23 Storm Alert Team.

Meteorologist Jessica Blum

FOX23 Storm Alert Team