The National Weather Service (NWS) has issued a Tornado Watch until 10 p.m., Thursday, March 19.

Arkansas Counties Included:

Baxter
Benton
Boone
Carroll
Clark
Cleburne
Columbia
Conway
Crawford
Dallas
Faulkner
Franklin
Fulton
Garland
Grant
Hempstead
Hot Spring
Howard
Independence

Izard
Jackson
Jefferson
Johnson
Lafayette
Lawrence
Little River
Logan
Lonoke
Madison
Marion
Miller
Montgomery
Nevada
Newton
Ouachita
Perry
Pike

Polk
Pope
Prairie
Pulaski
Randolph
Saline
Scott
Searcy
Sebastian
Sevier
Sharp
Stone
Van Buren
Washington
White
Woodruff
Yell

We will be following the storms as they develop and will give live updates if our local area is impacted with severe weather.

The NWS predicts showers and thunderstorms to be on the increase today, mainly for portions of Southwest Arkansas, Northeast Texas and Southeast Oklahoma. The NWS advises that some of the activity could become strong to severe late afternoon into the evening, mainly north of the I-30 corridor.

If severe storms develop, the NWS said damaging wind gusts are expected to be the main threat.

A cold front is expected to move through the area Friday, bringing possible scattered to numerous thunderstorms throughout the day and waning off Friday night.

Saturday is expected to be clear with some rain and storms moving through the area Saturday night.