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KNWA & FOX24 - Northwest Arkansas & River Valley News
Weather Blog: Severe Weather Possible This Afternoon
By Joshua Rugger,
13 days ago
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — Severe weather potential continues to increase for early this afternoon into the evening hours across Northwest Arkansas and the River Valley, as a powerful cold front swings through the area. Very large hail, damaging winds and even a low-end tornado threat exists with the strongest storms.
Latest Severe Weather Risk & Threats
The latest Day 1 Convective Outlook features a level 2 out of 5 Slight Risk of severe weather for most of the KNWA/FOX24 coverage area. There is still uncertainty on when exactly the cap (or the “lid” on the atmosphere) will break and how the storms evolve throughout the day, but steep lapse rates and high instability will promote an all severe hazards threat, especially along and east of the I-49 corridor.
The greatest concern with any thunderstorms that develop is very large hail , some of which could be over 2″ in diameter (hen egg size). Hailstones of this magnitude can pose a significant threat to roofs and vehicles, so make sure you’re planning accordingly as many of these storms could be moving through as you’re heading back home from work and school! Damaging wind gusts up to 70 MPH are also possible across all of the area, especially if these storms begin to form into a line as they progress off to the east.
While the threat for tornadoes is on the lower end, there is still the potential for one or two as these storms cross the Oklahoma and Arkansas border. The threat for tornadoes will increase if the cold front slows down and storms remain discrete, so stay tuned to the latest updates as we will have a better idea on these features throughout the afternoon!
Severe Weather Timing
Currently, we believe the main timeframe for severe weather will be between 2 P.M. to 8 P.M. , though some activity may linger in far eastern portions of our weather coverage area through 10 P.M. With the environment currently in place, isolated to widely scattered supercells should begin to develop in NE Oklahoma around 2 P.M. to 4 P.M. and then expand eastward as the cold front begins to speed up. Storms will rapidly intensify as they move along the I-49 corridor and should be pushing through the Bentonville, Fayetteville and Fort Smith areas by 4 P.M. to 7 P.M. Once the cold front moves through your area, the severe weather threat will end. You can see the potential evolution of these storms in the latest FutureTrack model below, along with our forecasted rain chances throughout the day!
Prepare For Severe Weather
As always, keep it here with YOUR Weather Authority Team for the latest! You can check out all of the newest details by downloading our FREE Weather Authority App on the Google Play and Apple App Store, and by following us on our social media pages below! Make sure you have multiple ways to receive warnings (including a weather radio, our app and on TV), and stay weather aware as these storms move in during rush hour traffic across Northwest Arkansas and the River Valley! Stay safe everyone!
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