This map from AccuWeather shows the potential for severe weather Thursday throughout most of Georgia and parts of five other Southern states. 

MOULTRIE, Ga. — As if in celebration of the state’s Severe Weather Preparedness Week, the National Weather Service has predicted possibly dangerous thunderstorms today and Thursday.

In a forecast published to its website, www.weather.gov/tae, the NWS’s Tallahassee office said there’s a 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms today, mainly after 1 p.m., but that chance rises to 80 percent tonight.

By Thursday, the chance of a thunderstorm is 90 percent, the NWS website said, and it maintains that chance into Thursday night.

The weather should be sunny by Friday, but it’ll be a lot cooler. The high today should be around 75 and on Thursday 72, but on Friday the high is expected to be 56, the NWS said.

“The story for the short term is the threat for severe storms Wednesday night through Thursday night,” the National Weather Service’s forecasters said on the website. “The timing has become slightly more in line although there are still uncertainties on the front end, Wednesday evening and night, and the strength of those storms. …

“The main severe threat will be with the line of storms but the question becomes where and when does the line form,” the website said. 

The forecast said one model predicts the line will form just west of Tallahassee, Fla., early Thursday, but another predicts it forming in southeast Alabama and entering Florida somewhat later.

“Everyone should be prepared for multiple rounds of severe storms, damaging wind gusts and tornadoes as early as Wednesday night and into Thursday night,” the forecast warned, and said hail would be less likely but still possible.

Stay alert to changing weather conditions. Weather alerts will be posted to The Moultrie Observer’s website and social media pages when they’re issued by the National Weather Service. Also consider getting a National Weather Service radio or a weather alert app for your cell phone.

The Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency and the National Weather Service are commemorating Severe Weather Preparedness Week this week. Each day highlights a particular danger and encourages residents to plan and prepare how they’d deal with those threats. Today’s focus is tornadoes and will include a tornado drill; Thursday’s emphasis is lightning, and Friday’s is flooding.

For more on storm preparedness, visit gema.ga.gov/plan-prepare/ready-georgia.