5 on your side is in storm alert this
afternoon, and we're going to be that way
right on through tomorrow into tomorrow
night into Thursday morning. You know,
by the time we get to Thursday afternoon,
some of us are going to be dealing with
trying to move a foot or so of snow around,
and the winds are going to help
move some of it around too,
because it will get windy on Wednesday
and at times again on Thursday.
Some gusty winds with this storm system.
But today it's been a warm breeze.
We've been in the low 60s
in places around town.
This afternoon, kind of amazing actually.
What's been going on?
I did not have 60 on my bingo card for
weather with this particular storm system.
We're still at 59 degrees
at Lambert right now.
Lambert so far things are rolling
along pretty well today because the
weather is not a big impact today.
So out at the airport,
the flights coming and going pretty much
as scheduled or with minimal delays.
And I know a lot of people
have tried to adjust.
Metro areas 50 off to the east
of Saint Louis and here you look
at the radar pictures locally.
All rain, of course.
Right now, with temperatures being so warm,
we're still ahead of the front.
Showers continue to develop
and it's expanding.
This area of rain is through
the course of the evening,
maybe even some downpours in there.
Once the colder air gets
deeper to our north and West,
we do get somewhat of a mixture
here going into northern Missouri
that changes over to snow,
but you kind of look back into Southwest
Missouri and down into Oklahoma.
Parts of Kansas and just see
how things are blossoming.
There and with that blossoming
that we're seeing there,
that's an indication of what's to come.
The front itself getting
closer to Saint Louis,
that surge of moisture is going to
work towards the metro area through
the overnight hours and into tomorrow.
Look how much of the country is
impacted and you know all of us are
going to have winter weather impacts
from this as you go farther South
and east of saying there was maybe
not as much in terms of snowfall,
but still big problems.
And this stretches from Detroit,
Cleveland.
Indianapolis,
Chicago Saint Louis back to Kansas
City Oklahoma City,
Dallas even under a winter storm watch.
At this point you've got winter
storm warnings out around Denver.
2 impacts for us locally really
across Interstate 70 here.
Down 44 up 55 Central Illinois is
really going to take the brunt of
this over into central portions of
Indiana that is most likely where
the heaviest amounts of snow will be.
For us. It stays all rain through about.
Midnight and in Saint Louis until
about two or three o'clock.
That's when will slip just a
little below freezing will go to
freezing rain and then sleet.
Now as that colder air gets thicker,
you go more to a sleet and
eventually a snow mix.
And that's where we'll get
into tomorrow morning.
So just want to show you the futurecast here.
This is just a simulation of
what we're expecting to happen,
and again we will be tracking
the colder air in overnight.
So as we get down around freezing
and just below we switch over
to a period of freezing rain.
And eventually freezing rain and
sleet and then it's freezing rain
and sleet and then sleet and snow
and then eventually mostly snow.
Now that will be the case northwest
of Saint Louis.
You'll get into the snow a lot sooner
as you go up towards Jerseyville,
Bowling Green, Troy Metro area,
South and east.
You get a little more of a mix and
that's going to tend to hold our
accumulations down the 2nd wave
of this system is coming in here
as we get into Wednesday night.
Now at that point we're already in the 20s.
And we're not going to see
temperatures moving a whole lot
overnight Wednesday night.
1920 degrees is where we'll be.
So snow us probably add up pretty
good as long as we don't get a warm
layer somewhere to give us a mix.
We think there'll be a little more
of a mix southeast of Saint Louis,
which tends to hold the accumulations down.
So from Farmington to Sainte
Genevieve over to Nashville, IL,
you're not going to see as much snow because
you have more sleet mixed in with it.
But as you go to the northwest
side of the metro area,
there may be some spots that
end up with more than a foot.
Of snow out of this system,
it all tends to wind down later on Thursday,
so by Thursday afternoon
flurries stiff breezes.
But here are the impacts and there's really
no matter what you're getting out of this,
you're going to get into these impacts.
It is a plowable snow or a plowable
moment of sleet and snow with the heaviest
amounts of snow being north and West,
and perhaps in the metro area
and then north and West.
The worst of it is most likely
going to happen.
Wednesday night into early Thursday
for the vast majority of US power
outages are going to be limited to
those areas southeast of Saint Louis,
where that glazing is more of
a a potential problem,
and that includes places
like lesterville Annapolis,
Fredericktown,
over to Perryville and then you get back,
getting closer to the metro area.
You get more into that sleet to
snow mixture and then by the
time we get into the metro,
North and West we will end up
getting over to the snow faster.
And because of that as we go
north and West of Saint Louis.
We do think the snow amounts between
these two waves that come through
will actually be able to kick up in
some cases more than a foot of snow,
and the most likely areas for that
to happen would be on that line from
about Herman to Troy to Jerseyville
and points on to the north.
But you know we're not going to rule
out some spots in Saint Charles County,
Warren Franklin County even into
northern portions of Saint Louis
County and Madison County ending up
with right around a foot of snow.
It's all going to come down to
that mixture that we see.
As a part of it so.
Just kind of wrapping things up for you.
You know the colder air is coming in.
We know that for sure.
It's not that far away.
So as temperatures go below freezing,
fortunately,
since we've been around 60 today when we're
sitting at 30 to 31 degrees initially,
as this is happening in the
wee hours tomorrow morning,
the roads will probably still just be
wet once we start mixing that sleet in.
That's when the road temperatures
are going to cool very quickly and
get to a situation where things
are going to get slick.
That's going to be happening,
we think during the morning rush
hour tomorrow for Saint Louis,
and then it's a mix of snow and sleet.
Now you may not get a huge
amount of that combination,
especially East and southeast of
the arch as you head into the midday
hours when things kind of let up for
a little bit towards mid afternoon
tomorrow into early tomorrow evening.
But then you'll get the next wave,
so the combination of the two is
what's going to create so many
of our problems for travel here.
Across the bi-state region,
now there still will be some subtle changes.
What we'll be watching for as we go
into tomorrow and especially going into
late tomorrow night early on Thursday.
What will we watching for is if
we can get some little narrower
bands of heavier snow to form,
and if those do form over the metro area,
there's even the chance there
might even be a, you know,
a rumble of Thunder in there and we
may have some pretty hefty snowfall
totals coming out of that which
could locally boost the amounts.
In your backyard,
the bottom line is we're going to
be dealing with winter weather,
even though right now it feels like
it's a springtime afternoon in Saint Louis,
it's not going to last much longer,
and then we are going to face the
reality of old man winter tomorrow
for sure and no less on Groundhog Day.
So that'll wrap it up from the
five on your side weather center.
We're going to be in storm alert
through Thursday.
We'll keep you updated on line.
Will keep you updated on air and
also on the five on your side app.
You know you stick with five on your
side will keep you updated as the storm
moves through one things for sure.
Come Friday,
we'll start to get those roads cleared up
and we'll start to get things back to normal.
So just make sure you can hang in
there until about Friday afternoon
and most of us have enough food.
May not be the most desirable stuff
in the pantry or in the cupboards,
but you know it's enough to get
you through a couple of days.
We're going to be OK,
alright,
we'll talk to you soon.