Severe storms are possible in Region 8 Thursday afternoon, with all Arkansas counties in the area under a level 2 out of 5 threat and southern Missouri at level 1 out of 5. The storms are expected to build a little past the lunch hour and move east.
The coverage will not be especially high, and some places may miss out on rain altogether. But where storms do form, the main concern is large hail during the evening, with some stones possibly growing larger than 2 inches in diameter. The tornado threat is very low but not zero, and any tornado that does form should be short-lived and weak.
The forecast covers all Arkansas counties in Region 8 and southern Missouri after a quiet week with virtually no severe weather before this setup. That makes Thursday afternoon the first real test of the week, with the most active window running from 4:30 to 7 a.m. and then again near 11 a.m., 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. as the situation is watched through the day. The National Weather Service is pointing to a limited but real hail threat, and the question for residents is not whether every town will get hit, but whether the storms that do develop can turn large enough to do damage before they move east.
