***UPDATED FRIDAY AT 7:00 AM***

Happy Independence Day! After talking about the possibility of rain today over the past several days, it looks like most of the day will shape up nicely.

There are morning thunderstorms in several places, but these will shift into northern Arkansas as we head throughout the day. As of 7 AM there is already sunshine about 60 miles northwest of Springfield and the clearing line will be moving this way.

So, the bottom line. Conditions will be improving in most places throughout the day so expect mostly clear skies by this evening and really, for most of the day we (Springfield) should be rain free after a few rainy hours this morning. Storms will linger longer and perhaps into the evening hours in sections of northern Arkansas. Temperatures will top out in the lower 80s by early afternoon and hover in the middle 70s by fireworks time. By the way, sunset is at 8:38 this evening.

Have a wonderful holiday and look for a complete update on the rest of the weekend and possibilities of severe weather and flash flooding next week in a blog post on Saturday. Take care and enjoy the weekend.

Josh

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previous post from Thursday evening

Good afternoon, storms are developing across the area this afternoon and will continue through this evening. Some storms will have heavy rain and a few could become marginally severe.

A front hangs around the area and finally pushes south of the region by late tomorrow along the MO and AR border.

A Flash Flood Watch is still in effect.