Dangerous Overnight Storms to Bring Tornado Threat to East Texas

When you go to bed tonight, it would be wise to make sure that you have some way to monitor breaking weather alerts. That's because the National Weather Service is expecting some severe weather to pop off overnight across east Texas.

Are Tornadoes a Possibility Tonight?

Unfortunately, the answer to that question is Yes.

The Storm Prediction Center (SPC) has placed a huge chunk of east and northeast Texas in the 'yellow' target zone for severe weather for much of Friday.

NOAA

On a threat scale of 1 to 5, the yellow-shaded area is a 2. Putting that into words means that scattered severe storms are expected in that region. According to the SPC, the main severe threats will be damaging straight-line winds, large hail, and tornadoes.

Tornado Threat

NOAA

Lufkin, Nacogdoches, Tyler, and Longview are all included in the brown-shaded region of this tornado outlook map. Anyone in that area has a 5% chance of having a tornado touch down within 25 miles of their location.

That's considered somewhat minimal, but you should still stay alert to weather conditions in your area.

Hail Threat

NOAA

Northeast Texas is in the bull's-eye for the worst of the large hail threat. Anyone living in the black 'hatched' area has a 10% or greater probability of being within 25 miles of hail that is at least 2 inches in diameter.

Timing of the Storms

Thursday night, rain chances will start to increase across east Texas. Right now, forecasters expect the potential for the worst of the storms to hit after midnight tonight and before 9 a.m. on Friday.

Many of the weather models are showing severe storms to develop in the Lufkin/Nacogdoches area between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m.