Severe thunderstorm watches blanketed northern Mississippi and eastern Arkansas on Monday, June 1, 2026, while a separate flood warning remained in force along the Cache River in Arkansas — a one-two punch of damaging storms and rising water across the Mid-South.
Severe thunderstorm watches for Mississippi and Arkansas
The National Weather Service in Memphis flagged two watch boxes carrying a threat of damaging wind gusts and large hail. Severe Thunderstorm Watch 261 ran until 7 p.m. CDT for 19 north Mississippi counties, including DeSoto, Marshall, Tate, Tunica, Panola, Lafayette and Lee — covering Southaven, Olive Branch, Oxford, Clarksdale and Tupelo.
Across the river, Severe Thunderstorm Watch 263 stayed valid until 9 p.m. CDT for eastern Arkansas counties such as Craighead, Crittenden, Cross, Greene, Phillips, Poinsett and St. Francis, taking in Jonesboro, West Memphis, Forrest City, Paragould and Wynne. The broader watch spanned much of central and northern Arkansas as well.
Cache River flooding in Arkansas
Even as storms rolled through, the flood warning for the Cache River near Patterson remained in effect until further notice, affecting Woodruff and Jackson counties. The river sat at 9.8 feet Monday morning — above its 9.0-foot flood stage — with minor flooding occurring and the river near crest before an expected slow fall by midweek.
At those levels, low swampy timberland and unprotected pasture and cropland flood, and water can creep over parts of State Highway 37 and the shoulders of State Highway 18 near Grubbs. Forecasters repeated the standard warning for high water: “Turn around, don’t drown,” noting most flood deaths happen in vehicles.
What is driving the threat
The NWS office in Little Rock said another round of severe weather was possible across Arkansas through Monday evening, with strong to damaging winds and hail the main hazards, before a backdoor cold front ushers in cooler air on Tuesday.
Forecasters also cautioned about flash flooding. With parts of northern Arkansas in drought, hardened, dry soils can shed heavy rain quickly, sending rapid runoff into creeks and low-lying roads. Arkansas is no stranger to costly water events — federal records count multiple billion-dollar flooding disasters in the state since 1980. Residents were urged to avoid flooded roadways, secure equipment in low areas near the river, and move indoors as storms approached.