ST. LOUIS - The U.S. National Weather Service in St. Louis announced Wednesday afternoon that the forecasts they made earlier in the morning regarding severe thunderstorms and possible tornadoes in the area didn't pan out as severely as expected.
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“It’s frustrating for us and you when our forecasts don’t go as planned,” the weather service stated in a Facebook post. “So much thought and energy goes into our forecasts, we don’t take tornado or severe thunderstorm forecasts lightly.
“When things like this happen we take a critical look at what went wrong. Many aspects of this event favored severe weather, but a few critical details did not develop.”
Early Wednesday morning, the weather service predicted severe thunderstorms, high-speed winds, high potential for tornadoes and golf-ball-sized hail in the St. Louis area of southeastern Missouri and southwestern Illinois from about 11 a.m.-4 p.m.
“This morning started out much cloudier than anticipated, which didn’t allow energy to build up to fuel future thunderstorms,” the weather service explained in the post. “Showers and thunderstorms began to form quickly during the morning, rapidly using up the small amount of energy that had developed. This left no fuel for severe thunderstorms later in the morning and afternoon when the best lift was moving over the area.”
Later in the day, the chances for severe weather shifted further into southeastern Missouri, according to the weather service’s Facebook page. These posts, as well as those from earlier this morning, have since been marked as “OUTDATED.”
For more information, visit the US National Weather Service Saint Louis Missouri’s Facebook page or their website at weather.gov/stlouis.
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