ST. LOUIS – Even though we set a new record high Monday at 76 degrees, winter is definitely not over!
The weather pattern going into next week looks active…and it looks colder.
The northern branch of the jet stream is setting up to deliver colder air to the Midwest early in the week. This won’t be extreme cold, but it will be cold enough to support winter precipitation over a broad part of the country from the Rocky Mountains, down the I-70 corridor, through St. Louis, and on into the Ohio Valley.
As the cold air arrives, the active Pacific jet stream will send waves of energy rippling into the southwestern United States. From there, a few things could happen.
One option is that the energy gets stretched out and remains poorly organized. This would tend to keep precipitation amounts rather light and intermittent.
On the other hand, some of this energy could remain more intact and better organized as it ejects out of the desert southwest. This would ramp up the chances for more impactful winter weather along the I-70 corridor from Tuesday through Thursday.
At this time, either solution, or a combination of both, is possible.
So, the end result is that we need to monitor next week for what could be multiple opportunities for light to moderate winter precipitation, which for our viewing area looks to be mostly in the form of snow.