Severe storms threaten South with damaging winds, large hail and tornadoes

FORT SMITH, Ark. – Parts of Arkansas , Oklahoma and North Texas , including the Dallas - Fort Worth Metroplex, are under threat of severe thunderstorms that could bring large hail , damaging wind gusts and even tornadoes beginning Tuesday afternoon and lasting through the overnight hours.

The intensity of these storms will be somewhat dependent on the strength of severe storms moving through Kansas and Oklahoma Tuesday morning. If these morning storms are weaker, more energy will be available in the atmosphere for thunderstorms in the afternoon to deliver large hail or form supercells that would yield tornadoes.

Tuesday's severe weather threat extends across the southern Plains and eventually into parts of the Mississippi and Tennessee valleys and also carries the potential for flash flo