Southwest Illinois gets its first snow. Now what about a white Christmas?
More than 60 million people on the east coast are bracing for a fast-moving winter storm that is expected to deliver everything from ice and heavy wind gusts in the Carolinas to up to two feet of snow in New England.
That same system moved through the Rockies on Tuesday and brought St. Louis and the metro-east its first snowfall of the season.
The National Weather Service office in St. Louis issued a hazardous weather outlook from Central Missouri through southwestern Illinois during the early-morning hours Wednesday. Most areas received a half an inch of snow or less.
Looking forward, there isn’t much precipitation in the forecast in the next seven days, according to the NWS with the best chance coming Saturday.
As for Christmas Day, the early National Weather Service Christmas forecast suggests brisk temperatures ranging from a low of 18 to a high of 34, but sunny skies. But there’s a lot of time between then and now, an NWS meteorologist cautions.
“It’s a little too early to say at this point whether or not we’ll have a white Christmas,” said meteorologist Brad Charbonaeu of the National Weather Service. “Usually we don’t really have an accurate gauge up to seven days out and we’re still about 10 days out.
“Give us a call on the weekend and we might have an idea.”
Saturday brings about a 40% chance of rain with a high of 45 and low of 27. The rest of the week looks clear to mostly sunny with temperatures rising steadily through the weekend to a high near 60 degrees by Monday.
This story was originally published December 16, 2020 at 12:12 PM.
