Severe weather, NAFTA-style, and threats in the Mid-South

You don't see this often... as of 4:40pm this afternoon, there are TWELVE (count 'em, 12!) Severe Thunderstorm and Tornado Watches in effect, stretching from northern Michigan (basically the Canadian border) all the way to south Texas, at the border with Mexico.  (I'm not sure this is what the government had in mind when they put together NAFTA, but you could travel from Canada to Mexico and not leave a watch box!) When the watches were originally issued, 53.5 MILLION people were affected, or over 1/6 of the U.S. population (also greater than the populations of Spain, South Africa, and South Korea).

Twelve watch boxes are in effect at 4:40pm, affecting 53.5 million people from Canada to Mexico

For the upcoming week, the Mid-South is going to be under a threat of severe weather (though likely not a high threat of tornadoes) until a cold front finally passes through on Thursday.  A Slight Risk of severe weather exists the rest of today, Monday, and Tuesday, and the Storm Prediction Center has highlighted the threat of severe weather across the Mid-South Wednesday and Wednesday night as well. The MWN Storm Center shows all of these maps in detail.  The main threats will be large hail (1" or larger) and damaging thunderstorm wind of 60 mph or greater each day.

Though rain chances aren't particularly high any day through mid-week, the combination of very warm temperatures, abundant moisture, and marginal wind shear, will mean that any storms that pop up could produce some severe weather. By Wednesday night and Thursday, a cold front will move through and clear everything out, however it too will bring a likely round of severe storms. The timing for this event is not certain just yet, but stay with MWN for the latest as the situation develops.

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