Tornado Watch Issued for Western Kentucky, Southwestern Indiana

We wouldn't have been wrong to believe that, at some point Thursday, a tornado watch would be issued. And after a succession of afternoon severe storms that came with warnings--a couple of them WERE tornado warnings--that is exactly what has happened.

The National Weather Service has issued a tornado watch for a large portion of western Kentucky and southwestern Indiana until 11 PM Thursday evening. The Kentucky counties in the affected area are Daviess, McLean, Muhlenberg, Hopkins, Webster, Henderson, and Union. In Indiana, the counties are Spencer, Warrick, Vanderburgh, Posey, Pike, and Gibson.

From the National Weather Service's Paducah office:

A thunderstorm complex will move east from southeast Missouri through much of the rest of the four-state region this afternoon and evening. Some storms ar expected to be severe, with damaging winds, large hail, and even a few tornadoes possible. The storms will produce torrential rains, as well, which could overwhelm some drainage systems and cause localized flooding issues.

While those tornado warnings for northern Warrick and Spencer Counties in Indiana earlier Thursday afternoon WERE cause for concern, nothing more than large hail was reported. But it was pretty large, with hailstones the size of golf balls--and even larger, in some cases--pelting the region.

On the far left side of this map, posted at 6 PM by Eyewitness News/WEHT, you see a huge area of concern that Chief Meteorologist Wayne Hart was mentioning earlier on his broadcast.

And this timeline from the Eyewitness News/Weather Authority app gives you an idea of the WINDOW for the storms Thursday evening.

Oddly enough, and despite a large number of western Kentucky counties in the warned area, the majority--if not all of the activity--is expected to unfold in southwestern Indiana. Should tornado warnings be issued and our region potentially threatened, we will join the WEHT/WTVW Weather Authority team with full coverage Thursday evening.

Obviously, we hope that isn't the case.