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 The area of greatest risk includes Oklahoma, Arkansas, southern
Missouri and Illinois and western Kentucky and Tennessee, where
significant tornadoes, large hail and damaging winds could strike
Thursday afternoon and evening, said John Hart, a meteorologist in
the service's storm prediction center.
"The parameters look pretty good for tornadic storms tomorrow, but
the models are varying quite a bit on where the corridor of greatest
risk will be," Hart said.
The potential threat is caused by a strong weather system coming out
of southwest along with moist, unstable air rising from the Gulf of
Mexico, Hart said.
Thunderstorms expected to roll through the region on Wednesday and
early Thursday, ahead of the more severe weather, could give
forecasters a better sense of where the biggest potential will be
for tornadoes, according to Hart.
"At this point, we just can't quite tell" where the threat of
twisters is greatest, he said.
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The upper Midwest also faces severe weather from Wednesday night
through Friday as the forecast there includes freezing rain, sleet
and snow, according to the weather service.
Last year's tornado season was historic for the region. On May 20, a
top-of-scale EF5 twister with winds up to 200 mph, killed 24 people
in Moore, Oklahoma. Two weeks later, another EF5 tornado measuring
2.6 miles wide, the widest ever measured in the United States,
touched down near El Reno, Oklahoma.
(Editing by Scott Malone and Leslie Adler)
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