Moderate Risk for Severe Weather Tonight, Including Tornadoes, Large Hail & Extreme Winds

WBBJ 7 Forecast Update

March 14, 2025

Joel Barnes,

WBBJ 7 Forecast Update:

All of West Tennessee has now been upgraded to a moderate risk (4/5) for severe weather tonight. Tennis ball size hail, 80 MPH winds and large tornadoes will all be possible tonight. The threat will start after the sun goes down but it will increase in coverage and intensity as the night goes on. Not everyone is going to hit with storms tonight, but the storms that do develop could become extremely dangerous. Do not go to bed tonight without having a way to be woken up to any tornado warnings that might be issued in the area where you will be sleeping. Make a plan, go over it with your family, so you all are ready to take action if needed. Minutes or even seconds can save lives when dealing with this type of severe weather. Catch the right here.

May be an image of lightning and text that says 'STORM TEAM WEATHER wbbjtv.com LATEST ON THE STORM THREAT Be prepared for a multi-day storm event in West Tennessee First threat is 8pm to 4am Friday night Supercell chance! Any storms that pop could rotate quickly 2nd hreat is Saturday 8am to 5pm Widespread wind damage with a few spin ups possible All severe weather modes will be possible please stay weather aware during the event FLOOD You can watch our live coverage on our news or weather app, on our website, Thomas Media Radio and live on TV'

We are still looking at a significant storm threat Friday night into Saturday afternoon. The first threat will be Friday night between 8pm and 4am. These storms will be discreet cells and will not impact most of us. The storms that do develop through will rotate and could produce long tracked tornadoes. These storms will be easy to track on radar and we should be able to give the places impacted plenty of time to get to their safe places if needed.

May be an image of map, lightning and text that says 'STORM TEAM WEATHER wbbjtv.com wbbjtv. .com OVERALL RISK RISK SEVERE SEVERE WEATHER RISK FRIDAY NIGHT INTO SATURDAY MORNING LOW Martin MODERATE HIGH Dyersburg TORNADOES 15% CHANCE Milan Camden LARGE LARGEHAIL HAIL TENNIS BALL Jackson Parsons WINDS 8 80 MPH Memphis Bolivar Savannah FLOODING LOW'

The Saturday event looks to restart in the mid/late morning and afternoon. These storms will come out of the southwest and form in more of a line structure. The line will move to the northeast during the afternoon before clearing east of the Tennessee River by 5pm. There could be some very strong winds and isolated spin up tornadoes on Saturday as well. Look for more updates this afternoon.

May be an image of map and text that says 'STORM TEAM WEATHER wbbjtv.com FRIDAY NIGHT THREAT TIMELINE FRIDAY AFTER SUNSET INTO EARLY SATURDAY MORNING STORM TIMELINE GUSTY WINDS, HAIL & TORNADOES POSSIBLE Ridgely Union City Martin Paris Dyersburg MOST LIKELY 8 PM MIDNIGHT Trenton MOST LIKELY MIDNIGHT -4AM -4 A Ripley Gamden Huntingdon Alamo Brownsville Covington Jackson Lexington Parsons Henderson Memphis MOST LIKELY 10 PM 2 A Selmer Savannah'

According to the Storm Prediction Center…

Persistent southerly low-level flow will bring mid to possibly upper 60s F dewpoints northward into the TN Valley overnight. A persistent, strong low-level jet will overspread the region. Forecast soundings indicate very favorable thermodynamic and kinematic profiles, which would support intense supercells. Forcing mechanisms will be somewhat modest over the region, which may limit convective coverage, and a somewhat more conditional risk. However, any storms that develop within this environment overnight will pose a risk for strong tornadoes, large hail and damaging gusts..

THIS WEEK:

A wind advisory is out for our western counties this evening and tonight. It will be windy even before the storms move in. The winds will gust up to 45 MPH and be sustained between 20-25 MPH. On top of the wind threat, there is also a flood concern that will materialize on Saturday. Some areas along and southeast of I-40 could see 3-5″ of rain. Flash flooding will likely occur in some areas near the Tennessee river Saturday afternoon.

May be an image of map and text that says 'STORM STORMTEAM TEAM WEATHER wbbjtv.com WEATHER ALERT SUMMARY WEST TENNESSEE Union Cy Martit Paris WIND ADVISORY CROCKETT DYER FAYETTE GIBSONLAKE GIBSON HARDEMAN HAYWOOD| LAUDERDALE TIPTON OBION WEAKLEY SHELBY FLOOD WATCH Dyersburg Trenton Huntingdon Camden Alamo BENTON CARROLL CHESTER DECATUR GIBSON HARDIN HARDEMAN HENDERSONHENRY HENRY UNTIL 1:00 SAT UNTIL 1:00 SUN Ripley Lexington Brownsville Jackson Parsons Covington Henderson Bolivar Memphis Somerville Selmer Savannah'

Friday started out quite nice with highs making it up into the low 80s before the clouds and storm chances move in. The winds on Friday will be quite windy and it will be a humid wind coming out of the southeast tapping into the gulf moisture. Clouds will increase towards the back half of the day and storms will look to move in during the late evening with the most likely time to be impacted by storms will be after 10pm Friday night. As of storms, the storm prediction has all of West Tennessee under a level 4/5 for Friday night. That is called a moderate risk and we usually only get a couple of those each year in our area. So please take this system seriously.

May be an image of tornado and text that says 'STORM STORMTEAM TEAM WEATHER wbbjtv.com com TORNADO TERMINOLOGY KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE TORNADO WATCH: Weather conditions are favorable for the formation of severe storms and possibly tornadoes. Be prepared and have a plan. TORNADO WARNING: A tornado has been spotted or indicated by RADAR. Take action, there is an imminent danger to your life and property TORNADO EMERGENCY A rare situation wtih a severe threat to human life and catastrophic damage due to a violent tornado. Immediately seek refuge in a safe spot.'

The storms will start near the Mississippi River and expand to the east overnight. The storms will break up into Saturday morning before popping up again during the day on Saturday into the afternoon. Friday night lows will only fall to around 60° under the clouds, showers and thick humidity. All severe weather modes will be in play Friday night, including intense straight line winds, large hail and even some tornadoes, please stay weather aware. If you haven’t done so yet, please download the WBBJ 7 Storm Team Weather App before the event starts. You can track everything on the app live as the storms move through our area.

May be an image of tornado and text that says 'STORM TEAM WEATHER wbbjtv wbbjtv.com com ARE YOU STORM READY? SEVERE WEATHER READINESS NO WILL WILLMYHOME MY HOME PROVIDE GOOD LOCATION to TAKE SHELTER? NO IS THERE A NEIGHBOR, FRIEND, OR FAMIL ORFAMILYMEMBER MEMBER CAN GOTOWHOSE GO WHOSE HOUSE IS? YES FIND FINDANEARBY A NEARBY STORM STORMSHELTER SHELTER THAT IS OPEN YES YES YOU'RE STORM READY'

THE WEEKEND:

Storms are expected to linger into early Saturday morning with some of them being strong and probably severe into the overnight hours of early Saturday morning. The storms should clear out for a bit but reemerge into the early afternoon hours on Saturday. The greatest threat for severe weather on Saturday appears to be along the Tennessee river in the late morning or early afternoon before moving east and becoming stronger Saturday evening to the southeast of us into Alabama. Our storm threat should wrap up by the evening here in West Tennessee on Saturday. We will be dry and cooler on Sunday.

Saturday highs are forecast to reach the low to mid 70s and Saturday night lows will fall down to the mid 40s by Sunday morning as the cold front passes by. Saturday will be a mostly cloudy day with the winds remaining out of the southwest before moving to the northwest into the day on Sunday. There will be some clouds early in the day on Sunday that should try to clear out by Sunday afternoon. Sunday will be cooler with highs reaching up to around 60°. Sunday night will be chilly again with Monday morning lows falling into the upper 30s to kick off next week. We should stay above freezing though for the time being.