ST. LOUIS – The calendar says spring in mid-April, but this morning there were snowflakes again in the Riverbend.
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National Weather Service (NWS) in St. Louis Meteorologist Gary Schmoker said this morning was a part of an unusually cold April in St. Louis. He said snow has fallen in the area as late as May, but added it was exceedingly uncommon. Having this many cold days this late in the season is also exceedingly uncommon. Unfortunately, however, these chilly temperatures are not yet finished in the St. Louis Metro Area. Most of the counties in that area, including Madison, are under a freeze warning Monday night, Schmoker said. Temperatures are expected to hover around 32 degrees overnight, he said.
A small warm-up is expected to sweep the Riverbend as well as the rest of the St. Louis Metro from Tuesday until Wednesday night. Schmoker said temperatures Tuesday will rise rapidly after starting the day with a coating of frost. Lows Tuesday into Wednesday are predicted to be around 50 degrees, which is above normal. Above normal temperatures will continue until Wednesday night when a front will move through the area again.
“It will be above normal Tuesday through Wednesday,” Schmoker said. “The forecast after that looks below normal again, but nowhere near as cold as it was Sunday night. The good news is we will have more sun and quiet, dry weather. We will have a fairly quiet period of weather at least for the duration of the work week.”
When asked why these below normal temperatures have invaded the area for the majority of April thus far (with the obvious exclusion of beautiful and warm weather last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday), Schmoker said the jet stream across the continent was farther south than usual, and large storm systems have been bringing cold air from the Arctic with them. He said the core of those storms is around the Great Lakes Area, where later and larger snowfalls have taken place.
As for the future, Schmoker said he could not promise frost being a thing of the past for the duration of this spring, but did say further frost was not expected. He also said the area should not expect snow of any sort – not even flurries – after March.
Overall, however, this weather is great for destroying insects, which may pose a problem as the weather gets warmer (assuming it ever does get warmer), but awful for the growing season, which should now be underway across the Riverbend area.
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