Damaging Wind Threat Looms for Illinois and Missouri Thursday

Parts of Missouri and most of Illinois are likely to experience the type of thunderstorm you'd expect to see during the Spring months. Forecasters are warning of a possible damaging wind event that will likely leave Fall-like conditions in its wake.

The National Weather Service in St. Louis has just issued a special briefing about a developing storm situation that will impact parts of Missouri and Illinois starting Wednesday afternoon.

Here's what you can expect Thursday starting in Missouri and continuing into Illinois

Forecasters say there will be non-severe showers that will move across Missouri and Illinois starting Thursday morning. After those end, they say that severe storm development is expected to happen between 1pm and 8pm. Damaging winds are expected to be the main threat in these storms, but they say there is now an increased risk of an isolated tornado developing, too.

The biggest area of concern is the greater St. Louis area and nearly all of central and southern Illinois. As the National Weather Service map shows, a marginal risk for storm development extends from extreme east-central Missouri across Illinois with the rest of the region being in a slight risk.

After these storms pass, expect temperatures to plunge starting Friday morning with highs of only around 60 with nighttime lows dipping into the low 40's. That should (key word) be the beginning of more Fall-like temperatures, but the NOAA Climate Prediction Center still calls for warmer than average temperatures for Missouri and Illinois through the end of October.