Officials concerned about severe weather Wednesday

Weather officials are concerned two rounds of severe weather Wednesday could present problems for the region.

The first is expected between 1-6 p.m. Wednesday in Southeast Missouri and has the greatest chance of producing damaging winds or other severe weather, according to the National Weather Service. The second round is expected between 8 p.m. Wednesday and 1 a.m. Thursday and could produce significant rainfall leading to flash flooding, the NWS reports.

A conference call was held Tuesday afternoon with first responders and emergency responders from across Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky and Illinois.

“If we’re going to get damaging wind or tornadoes, maybe a little bit of hail, that first wave we think is most likely to produce that,” a NWS meteorologist shared during the conference call.

There is a lesser chance of tornadoes in the first round, with damaging winds being a higher risk under current models, he said.

“The thing that we’re most concerned about, I think, is the flash flooding, given how much rain we’ve seen over the course of the last few weeks,” the meteorologist said, earlier explaining, “We don’t have as much confidence in the placement of that, which is why we haven’t issued the Flash Flood Watch, but that will likely be coming as soon as we can get a grasp on exactly where we think everything is most likely to set up.”

An enhanced risk has been issued, of a level 3 out of 5.

“We could see more severe thunderstorms, more organized, severe thunderstorms, and a few more intense thunderstorms possible,” he said.

Additional updates will be provided as they become available.

“We will revise that as soon as we get new data and anything that changes we’ll let you know,” the NWS said.