Published on: January 22, 2012 at 11:42 PM

Storms finally started firing in the warm sector over northern Mississippi about two hours ago and those storms are becoming severe.

We are tracking a possible tornado in Monroe County MS that will move toward northwestern Marion County.

A hook echo is indicated west of Amory. This cell is moving northeast at 60 mph toward Smithville MS, which was devastated on April 27th. A tornado was reported on the ground at 11:20 at Trebloc.

The wind field over eastern Mississippi is very strong with 50-60 knots of bulk shear present. This will allow for very organized storms.

There is a narrow tongue of instability between 500-1000 j/kg extending over extreme western Alabama being pumped northward by a strong low level jet.

The combination has resulted in a significant tornado parameter of 1 or more over the western border counties of the state into Southwest Alabama.

Here is the STP map:

The main squall line is pushing eastward over Mississippi. Here are some approximate arrival times for this main line. There could be widespread 60-65 mph winds with this line as well as embedded small tornadoes.