We are continuing to monitor the possibility of severe storms moving into the region later tonight.
Most of us are included in the Storm Prediction Center’s ‘Slight Risk’ for severe storms for the threats of damaging, straight-line winds, large hail and the possibility of a couple isolated tornadoes.
Risks are as follows (within a 25 mile radius of any given location):
• Damaging Winds: 15%
• Large Hail: 15%
• Tornadoes: 5%
Those threats diminish the farther east you are on the Plateau.
As for timing, this looks to be a nighttime event for all of us.
ETA for areas like Lafayette down into Carthage are currently in the 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. window.
ETA for the remainder of the area (Cookeville, east to the Plateau) are in the midnight to 4 a.m. window.
(Please see graphic below for specific ETAs in your county)
Current thinking is a broken line of strong to severe thunderstorms will move into Middle Tennessee during the late evening hours, not arriving to the Upper Cumberland until bedtime or thereafter.
Our main threats, again, appear to be damaging winds and large hail — pretty typical with this type of severe weather setup. An isolated tornado or two is also possible, but likely *not* to the level of what we saw a couple weeks ago.
Now is the time to make sure all of your weather alerts methods are ready to go for tonight. If you have a weather radio or plan on purchasing one today, make sure it has fresh batteries and is programmed to sound for your specific county. Aside from a weather radio, make sure you have a secondary means of being alerted, such as a reliable storm alerts app like StormWatch Plus. Some of the local TV stations also have apps that will alert you — just make sure the app can be programmed for your specific location and will sound an alert for Severe Thunderstorm and Tornado Warnings. Make sure your phone is 1) FULLY CHARGED, 2) VOLUME UP, and 3) DO NOT DISTURB TURNED *OFF* — this way you will hear alerts as they are issued.
We will have updates posted throughout the day. Our live radar feed will be going all day, and I will do live updates as needed tonight.