Suspected tornado touches down in northern Texas

DECATUR, Texas (AP) — Authorities say a suspected tornado touched down early Friday in north Texas as a storm system threatens to spawn tornadoes in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee later in the day.

Cody Powell, the emergency management coordinator for Wise County, said the likely tornado struck about 5 a.m. in the southwest corner of the county near Parker County line, damaging homes and downing trees and power lines.

Powell said he had no reports of injuries.

The National Weather Service has not confirmed a tornado, but damage to homes was also reported in northern Parker County, said meteorologist Matt Stalley, and investigators likely will go to the area later Friday to make that determination.

The two areas are about 10 miles (16 kilometers) apart on the western edge of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, and Stalley said the storm system was expected to move east of the region by early Friday afternoon.

The weather service’s Storm Prediction Center has forecast severe weather through Friday evening primarily from the lower Mississippi Valley to the lower Ohio Valley.

The greatest risk of tornadoes includes an area from eastern Arkansas, northern Louisiana, western Mississippi and western Tennessee.

Storms with damaging winds and hail are expected along a swath from eastern Texas and southeastern Oklahoma into much of western Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama and including much of Louisiana and Mississippi and parts of southeast Missouri and southern Illinois.