Tornado Watch Issued

The SPC has issued a tornado watch for Oktibbeha County until 7 p.m. A broken line of showers and thunderstorms has slowly intensified over the last couple of hours as a few breaks in the clouds has boosted temperatures near 80. CAPE values remain weak (~500 J/kg) due to meager lapse rates aloft. However, showers and thunderstorms are trying to develop ahead of the line, but the cap seems to be curtailing their development. This will likely remain the case early this afternoon. The main line of thunderstorms looks to arrive in the area after 2:30 p.m. with damaging winds being the primary threat. Low level wind shear is impressive, but the tornado threat is fairly small given that the most concentrated storms are linear in nature. That being said, a few line breaks are evident with the storms to our west, so a tornado cannot be completely ruled out. The severe weather threat should end after 4 p.m. with temperatures quickly dropping into the 50s by this evening.