ALTON - There has been a storm watch for Christmas time for some time now, and weather predictors have a timeline established.

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The storm should move into the region in a quick fashion on Thursday, with a start of rain, snow, sleet, and then back to snow.

St. Louis area weather forecasters have a timeline established now for the storm. From 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. Thursday - patchy light rain is possible, with temps in the 30s, then from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. - winter mix changes to snow and temps drop to nearly 10 degrees. From 2-8 p.m. Thursday, snow, wind, and near-blizzard conditions are projected and temps will fall to 0 degrees with a wind chill of minus 25 degrees. Bitter cold, strong winds will continue after 8 p.m. Thursday with 0-degree temps and wind chills of minus 30.

On Friday, it should be dry, but dangerous wind chills with a high temperature of 7 degrees and a low of 0 degrees. Dangerous wind chills are predicted for Friday evening and for Christmas Eve Saturday. A high of 15 degrees is predicted with a low of 5 degrees. Christmas Day should be a high of 23 degrees, with a low of 17 degrees, and mostly sunny.

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Monday, there is a 40 percent chance of snow showers and a high of 30 degrees, a low of 18 degrees, and Tuesday, it is predicted to be a high of 30 degrees and a low of 24 degrees and partly cloudy.

Chad ScottChad Scott, the founder of the popular Hyperlocal Extreme Weather Facebook page, said in an interview early in the week on CJ Nasello's Our Daily Show! the biggest emphasis on the storm is not necessarily snowfall but the dangerous wind chills of minus 20 to 30 degrees and below zero.

“We will have anywhere from winds 30 to 50 mph blizzard-like conditions by the height of the storm and it will essentially be a very historic storm for St. Louis even though there might not be all that much snow,” he said. “I do believe we had 2-5 inches coming our way. Could the numbers go up? Yes, some maps show a higher accumulation. I do believe St. Louis will have a white Christmas.

“The absolute takeaway is this is a very dangerous storm system. People may be taking this likely but we are not taking this lightly on our page. Pets and stuff outside should be taken inside with the wind chills. People driving in conditions of the storm should realize salt doesn’t work very well to keep the roads clean in a flash freeze situation. We are very concerned about our audience and this storm is not one to take lightly.”

WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH CHAD SCOTT

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