Severe storms are expected for Wednesday afternoon

The threat of severe weather will be ramping up over the next few hours across Central Illinois.

The current radar is showing the stronger storms further west, but these will have the potential to strengthen as the move eastward.

The national weather service has issued a Tornado Watch for most of Central Illinois. This means that we will have the potential for storms to produce tornadoes over the next 5 6 hours.

Temperatures will be very steady in the mid to upper 70s, but the strongest storms should move out of Illinois by the time we make it into the evening.

Tornadoes and hail potential are low, but the potential for damaging wind gusts will be very high this afternoon as storm cells are expected to develop quickly.

Severe storms could move in as early as the next hour.

Any individual cell could have the potential to produce a severe thunderstorm, or tornado.

These cells will be moving very quickly with these strong wind gusts, so there might not be more than a few minutes to take shelter if a severe storm is issued.

The I-57 corridor will have stronger storms arrive for the back half of the afternoon. Areas along and east of I-57 will have the highest potential for damaging winds and tornadoes.

Most of the storms will begin to exit around 3 or 4 this evening, leaving the evening drive a little safer.

A few leftover showers are possible after 5 pm, but they will be much lighter and more scattered overnight. Be weather aware for the next several hours.

Conditions will be much calmer for Thursday and Friday with humidity and heat building in for the weekend. Heat advisories could be issued this weekend, but no rain is expected until the middle of next week.