Flooding along Texas coast; tornadoes in Midwest

Millions of Americans along the Gulf Coast are bracing for more torrential rain that could lead to life-threatening flash flooding. Tropical Storm Arthur has already formed in the Gulf, making it the first named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season. Parts of the Midwest are under tornado watch and could also experience flash flooding. CBS News National Weather Correspondent Rob Marciano is live in Illinois. Hey there, Rob. How are people preparing? You're on the road. We are on the road. We are on the chase. We pulled over to do our broadcast for the Evening News, and now we're going back to meet up with the chase crew that we're doing a story with, which is basically flying drones into tornadoes to gather data that we could never before gather. So it's kind of cutting-edge stuff, and we're just trying to catch up with a couple of twisters. There have been a few reported ones just northeast of where we were just a little while ago, just around near Decatur, Illinois, if you know where that is. And I think we have video out of one out of Alabama, which is kind of-- I don't want to say off the radar, but that's influenced, in some ways, by Tropical Storm Arthur. Check on it. I'm curious what's going on in Chicago. They are within the realm of seeing some severe weather, although they're north of most of the action right now. It looks pretty gloomy there, for sure. But the tornado watch that's in effect for a massive chunk of Illinois, Missouri, and Indiana, that's in effect till after midnight. So we still have several more hours of these storms to go through. And the ones that do develop into severe storms are moving at like 50, 60 miles an hour. So that's dangerous to begin with. Then we have nightfall coming. This is really unusual for the month of June to have these sort of jet-stream dynamics be so strong. It feels more like February or March. And that, coupled with the strong sun from June, the tropical moisture that we're getting because it's summertime now, it's really leading to a recipe that we don't typically see in June. So a little dicey tonight here in the Midwest, to say the least. And then this all does come to the Northeast tomorrow, much like it did last week. So it's been a busy couple of weeks there, Jules.

Yeah, absolutely. OK, let's talk about Tropical Storm Arthur. Is it tracking toward Louisiana? What do we expect through the night and into tomorrow? Well, thankfully, it hasn't. Arthur hasn't gone too far offshore into the Gulf, which is where the warm water is, which, as we all know, that helps fuel these tropical systems. So it's kind of hugged the coastline a little bit more than really forecast. So for that reason, it hasn't really got much more strong than a weak tropical storm. But that doesn't mean it doesn't have impacts in the way of flooding, and with these sort of slow-moving systems-- this one's been sitting over Texas for a couple days now-- you're talking about ground that's already saturated. So the I-10 corridor-- and that includes all of south Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and into part of the panhandle of Florida-- is under a flood watch, in some cases until Friday morning. So, quote, unquote, landfall, if it hasn't happened yet, it'll be happening here in the next few hours and then dissipating. But the water is the big story with Arthur. It is the A storm. It's the first storm of the season. It is June, the first month of hurricane season, so we still have a long ways to go as far as getting through hurricanes. But I'll tell you, so it's kind of an early start to hurricane season, and the tornado season doesn't want to quite end just yet. So I don't remember the last time I've seen an intersection like that, what's happening here tonight.

Interesting. OK, well, we look forward to your reports later tonight. And thanks to your photographer driving you along there, too. You make a good team. Rob, we'll talk to you soon. Thank you.