Severe thunderstorms are on the way to the Tennessee Valley Thursday afternoon. Strong thunderstorms with abundant lightning activity have been spotted on the WeatherRadar.

A slight risk - a level 2 out of 5 on the severity scale- for scattered severe thunderstorms has been issued for the Tennessee Valley, which includes much of Middle Tennessee. Isolated severe activity could extend from Jackson, Tenn., to far southwestern Virginia too.

On the northern edge of the cold front causing the stormy disruption, we're also seeing thunderstorms even with temperatures in the 40s. Just north of Carbondale and Harrisburg, Ill., elevated thunderstorms are dropping heavy rain and producing a lot of lightning. Warmer air is aloft is causing the instability, similar to what we saw late Wednesday and Thursday when lightning was produced within showers of freezing rain!

With today's severe weather threat, and with storms starting to pop up on the northwest edge of the slight risk as of mid-Thursday afternoon, residents will need to monitor the WeatherRadar as the commute creeps up and have at least three ways to receive weather warnings.