ST. LOUIS – The National Weather Service in St. Louis has issued a Winter Storm Warning for a large portion of its viewing area, including Madison County.
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As much as six inches of snow is expected to fall in the Riverbend area between Wednesday night and Thursday afternoon. Meteorologist Fred Glass said snow will develop Wednesday evening, continue overnight into Thursday morning and finally taper away Thursday afternoon. During that time, anywhere from five to seven inches of the white stuff is expected to accumulate. This will cause travel hazards and potentially localized power outages due to the storm's early-in-the-season arrival.
“Because there are leaves still on the trees, this causes a problem, because snow can collect on the leaves and weigh down the branches, causing them to fall on the roads or maybe even power lines, which could cause localized power outages,” Glass said.
Glass advised people stay aware of weather conditions, travel conditions and the current forecast. Glass said snowfall projections and amounts are subject to change, but said they were certain the system would be a large weather event.
“We've settled into a cold-weather pattern, and we've got a storm track favorable for a winter storm pattern,” Glass said. “This is a more usual pattern for December, January or February, but it's about a month early. It's coming from the Lower Mississippi River Valley and is moving northeast toward here and the Ohio River Valley.”
Temperatures over the next 24 hours will be conducive to the weather predicted as well. Highs Wednesday are predicted to reach the mid-30s and lows into Thursday should drop to the upper-20s with little different in temperature range. Highs Thursday could reach the lower 30s and lows into Friday may dip into the lower-to-mid 20s.
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Reporter Cory Davenport can be reached via call or text at (618) 419-3046 or via email at cory@riverbender.com.
