Good warm, summery afternoon everyone–we had a few isolated storms move through earlier producing some brief hail, but so far so good on the severe side. We DO have our sunshine and we’re heating up nicely. There’s a Tornado Watch to our west through later this evening all in advance of a line of strong to severe storms getting going in western Illinois.

It’s THIS line that we’ll watch move east towards the Region later this evening. I’m expecting a good amount of severe storm reports out of this in Illinois and perhaps a few tornadoes, but their environment is much more conducive to severe storms than ours.

Tonight will be the case of how well do these storms hold together and how much energy is left in them as they move through as our environment–while unstable–isn’t quite as robust as the environment in Illinois.

Stay tuned.