AccuWeather's Tony Laubach reported live from the road in Memphis on the evening of April 3 as strengthening storms led to serious risks for hail and possible tornadoes.
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00:00So we want to begin our live coverage this hour with Tony Blawback. He joins us live from near
00:04Memphis, Tennessee. And Tony, what's happening out there? You're under some of these storms that
00:08have been hail producers at least nearby. Well, we are attempting to get under these
00:16hail producers, and I know that sounds weird, but they don't call me hail boys for nothing.
00:22We do have these storms that are working their way in from the Arkansas area, Forest City,
00:27down to Helena, West Helena. In fact, that West Helena storm just got to Sevier Warren,
00:33half-dollar-sized hail. This storm likely going to probably impact the southwest suburbs of the
00:40Memphis metro area. That would include areas like South Haven, Hernando, areas down there kind of
00:46along the Mississippi-Tennessee border. If that storm continues its current track, there are hints
00:50that it might be trying to be a right mover, so that might avoid downtown. But certainly,
00:57if you're in the Memphis area, we mentioned this last hour, if you've got some time,
01:00a little bit of time here, maybe think about finding a place to stick your car. That way,
01:05it is out from underneath this should we see half-dollar-sized hail work into the Memphis
01:09area. That line of storms extending north right now, basically straddling Interstate 40, Forest
01:15City up to Wynote, will be in that area as well. Those storms sub-Sevier at the moment, but we've
01:22noticed a strengthening trend with these. We are attempting to get west of the Memphis area here
01:29right now on I-40. We just crossed the river, so we are now in West Memphis, Arkansas, attempting
01:35to get kind of in a position here. We're probably going to try to drop south, get on the north side
01:39of the Sevier storm there that's moving toward the West Helena areas and see exactly what kind
01:46of hail that might be serving up to folks. Again, probably the southern half of Memphis, and then
01:51we'll see if that gets into the rest of the Memphis area. Unfortunately, we're getting under
01:57the tail end of rush hour. It's about six o'clock here, central time, so fortunately, we're not
02:01seeing a ton of traffic on the roads. That's probably a very, very good thing. Certainly don't
02:05want to be caught in the open in a vehicle in a hail storm. For all practical purposes, that's
02:10just not going to be a good thing. Folks, if you are on the road and you do see the storm coming
02:17and you can't take shelter, do not stop under overpasses. I know that is a very tempting thought,
02:22but unfortunately, that just leads to all kinds of dangers, blocks the highways. Do not do that. I'm
02:28giving you this advance notice now. You probably got about 30 minutes or so. Find a place, gas
02:33station, your home, a garage, carport, car wash, any number of those places if this storm makes
02:39the approach to do that. Don't be on the roads. Don't stop under underpasses. We don't need to
02:45mess with that here. Tornado threat, I wouldn't be surprised, guys, if maybe this thing does
02:51acquire some rotation. Certainly, radar has the look. We'll see how maybe it's too cold
02:56for tornadoes in this area. We'll have to wait and see, but big storm coming. Be prepared.
03:02All right, Tony, thank you so much, and Tony brought up a good point that we have a lot of
03:06cold air in place here across this region, especially south of Tennessee along the Mississippi,
03:11and cold air in some cases can actually choke off severe thunderstorms because
03:16thunderstorms are taken over by primarily warm air that becomes very buoyant and allows those
03:22thunderstorms to build, but whenever you start to get cold air in place, cold air is a lot
03:27more difficult to lift than warm air, so those can normally choke off these thunderstorms,
03:32so the storm that Tony is talking about that he is watching out is going to be this one right here,
03:38so this is going to be the storm that he is tracking that's moving its way
03:41up towards the south portion of Memphis.