Severe storms threaten Southern states

Extreme meteorologist Dr. Reed Timmer has an update on the possible thunderstorms and tornadoes across several states as moisture moves in.

Transcript

00:00 Strong southerly winds continue to transport moisture rapidly northward

00:03 across central and northern Louisiana. The moisture is just beginning to

00:07 increase here in the Ruston, Louisiana area near the I-20 corridor,

00:11 but big-time moisture is evident in the surface map just to the south of

00:15 Shreveport with a dew point of 66 degrees Fahrenheit,

00:18 which is very big-time low-level moisture for this time of year in the

00:22 late fall, and that's setting the stage for a

00:24 potential outbreak of severe weather across far eastern Texas,

00:27 central and northern Louisiana, pushing into central and southern Mississippi

00:30 late night tonight, possibly even southeastern Louisiana, including the New

00:34 Orleans area as well, but you can start to see some

00:37 high clouds from developing storms to the south and to the southwest of

00:40 the Shreveport area. So far these are not supercell storms,

00:44 but basically just blobs of heavy rain producing storms,

00:47 definitely forming in response to that rapid moisture transport with these

00:50 southerly winds, but as we go through the day,

00:53 surface heating is going to continue. The temperatures here in Ruston are up

00:56 into the 70s, the moisture is going to continue to

00:58 increase, and so if these storms mature into supercells

01:02 and move into this environment just as that low-level jet

01:05 begins to increase, that's the channel of southerly winds just above the ground

01:09 that causes these supercell storms to tighten into tornadoes that could even

01:13 be potentially strong to violent later on this late afternoon and

01:17 evening and especially overnight tonight. That's because that low-level jet is

01:20 forecast to increase to over 50 knots, so it's very important here across the

01:25 target area to stay tuned to those severe weather

01:27 watches and warnings. This is the most dangerous type of outbreak, the ones that

01:31 happen in the middle of the night with those fast-moving storms, and

01:34 information saves lives. If you don't know about those tornado-producing

01:37 storms, you can't enact your family's severe weather safety plan,

01:41 so certainly stay tuned to those watches and warnings through the night tonight

01:45 here across the western mid-south.