Tornado watch and severe weather threats face St. Louis and surrounding regions Friday

A cold front bringing various severe weather threats will reach the St. Louis area Friday afternoon — making thunderstorms, large hail, damaging winds, and tornadoes potential dangers, into the evening. “All severe weather types will be possible,” the local forecast office of the National Weather Service wrote Friday in its analysis of the approaching storm. A tornado watch blanketing the region is in effect until 8 p.m., the NWS said. The agency wrote in online updates that the storm system will create the possibility of “violent, long-track tornadoes” classified as...