ST. LOUIS – The concern in the short-term forecast is the severe weather that’s expected Friday afternoon.
It’s a mild Friday morning out there and sunshine will help temperatures quickly climb into the 80s to near 90 F this afternoon. We’ll have a very unstable atmosphere as a cold front moves into the region, causing storms to fire.
All modes of severe weather are possible — hail over 2″ in diameter, wind gusts to over 80 mph, and tornadoes. The exact timing of when the storms develop is still uncertain but it’ll likely be in the 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. range. It’s possible the storms will fire just west of the metro, along the I-44 corridor and quickly push east.
Once they begin to develop, they’ll rapidly strengthen as they tap into all of the instability available. They’ll be moving fast, so they’ll most likely clear our region in the 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. timeframe.
Cooler temperatures (but still very nice) for Saturday with highs in the upper 70s to near 80 F with sunshine. Shower and storm chances return overnight Saturday into Sunday morning. The first half of next week will remain active with multiple rounds of rain and storms as an upper-level low moves into the midwest.