Weather Discussion: St Louis, Arctic Blast On The Way

CBS St. Louis

February 06, 2021

If you think it's been cold, it really hasn't...but it will be soon. Our December and January mean temperatures were a little more than 3° above normal. But now, cold air looks to pour in and settle for a bit. This blast of cold will advance on us Saturday night into Sunday. The model trend shows us getting briefly "warmer" (but still well below normal) before the core of this Arctic air and even colder temperatures hit us next week. Lows will be in the single digits to low teens on Sunday morning with highs in the 20s. Steve Templeton, News 4 Chief Meteorologist, But this graphic shows a strong signal for below normal temps through February 18th. If this cold air moves in as advertised I would expect several days in a row below freezing and next week several days with single digit lows if not making a run for a below zero low by late next week or weekend. That's a long ways away, so I caution that this can certainly change. But I wanted to get you the heads up on what I'm seeing in the long range. I will keep you posted!

Posted Wednesday Feb. 3rd:
There is more uncertainty than before on the cold blast forecast for Sunday. While I've warmed the temperatures slightly, it's still very cold with potential lows in the single digits and highs in the 20s. However, one of our longer range forecast models has a different scenario leading to less confidence on exactly how Sunday-Wednesday or next week will play out. The change shows the depth of the cold air only briefly reaching St. Louis Sunday before temperatures rebound slightly.
As of Wednesday Evening I have our forecast for Sunday with a Low of 7 and a high of 21. But I could see some big changes to the forecast for Sunday into next week until we start to see more of a consensus in the models. For now, plan on a cold Super Bowl Sunday, the question will be just how cold. And I will continue to keep you updated!