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The National Weather Service in Memphis released the following Hazardous Weather Outlook is for portions of West Tennessee, East Arkansas, the Missouri Bootheel and North Mississippi Friday morning.
Today and tonight, a wind advisory is in effect for portions of the forecast area. South winds will be 15 to 25 miles per hour with gusts up to 35 miles per h expected.
Saturday through Thursday, a few strong to severe thunderstorms will be possible across portions of extreme northwest Tennessee, northeast Arkansas, the Missouri Bootheel, and Saturday evening through Sunday morning.
Locally heavy rainfall, hail and gusty winds will be the primary threats.
2:56 P.M. Friday, MAY 20 UPDATE FROM NWS:
Heads Up, Mid-South!
The latest Convective Outlook from SPC has upgraded much of the Mid-South to a Slight Risk (level 2 out of 5) for Severe Weather tomorrow evening. A strong but slow-moving cold front will approach the Mid-South tomorrow, kicking up a line of showers and thunderstorms ahead of it. This line may contain some strong to severe storms as it initially moves through northeast Arkansas and the Missouri Bootheel tomorrow evening, most likely starting around the 8PM time frame (give or take an hour or so due to the 24+ hour uncertainty).
Parts of west Tennessee may also see some strong storms with this line, but it does look like the system should weaken the farther south and east it gets throughout the evening tomorrow. Our main concern with this system will be damaging winds along the leading edge of the storms tomorrow evening, as well as prolonged heavy rainfall that could lead to flash flooding throughout the evening tomorrow into Sunday morning.
We also have a Slight Risk (level 2 out of 4) for Excessive Rainfall tomorrow night into Sunday mainly for areas along and west of the Mississippi River. This front is quite slow-moving, so some areas of the Mid-South could see training storms and rainfall amounts of up to 2 inches throughout the event, with locally higher amounts possible. The severe weather threat should diminish by midnight tomorrow night, but the flooding threat will likely continue into early Sunday morning.
Forecast uncertainty is high with this event, so check back with the latest updates as we get more data in and the details become more clear! Stay weather aware tomorrow, Mid-South!
