Severe storms possible in Arkansas this week | What to know

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — After a gorgeous past few day, changes come as we approach mid-week. Scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms are expected to impact Central Arkansas Tuesday afternoon through Wednesday.

Due to increasing confidence in some of these storms producing severe weather, our weather team has issued a Weather Impact Alert for Tuesday and Wednesday, May 5 & 6.

A few isolated thunderstorms may be possible Tuesday morning as an upper level disturbance pushes though, but this round is not associated with the main severe risk for Tuesday. 

The second, and main round, of showers/ and storms will start to develop late Tuesday afternoon. At first, storms are expected to develop as discrete cells, but they are expected to merge into a broken line later in the evening/overnight through Wednesday.

The Storm Prediction Center has placed much of Central Arkansas under a slight, level 2 of 5,  risk for Tuesday. By Wednesday morning, that slight risk shifts over southeastern portions of the state. 

For the first round of rain on Tuesday morning, large hail is the main hazard.

For the second round of rain on Tuesday evening and overnight, very large hail (up to two inches in diameter) is the main hazard, but damaging wind gusts (between 60-70 mph) and a couple of tornadoes cannot be ruled out.   

Stay with the THV11 Weather Impact Team for the latest information and look for live updates on our streaming channel THV11+ throughout the week.  

THV11+ is available for  free download  on Amazon Fire TV Stick, Roku, Apple TV, and Samsung TVs. 

Don’t forget to join the THV11 Weather Watcher Facebook page by clicking  here. 

You can also send your reports and videos of anything weather-related in Arkansas by texting (501) 376-1111, but be sure to include your name and location. 

Once this round of rain moves out by Thursday morning, we’ll have a few more “quiet” spring days before rain chances return Mother’s Day weekend.

There are hints that the second round could also produce severe weather, but it’s too far in advance to have confidence in that scenario. We’ll provide updates as they become available.