Missourians are enjoying this April weather in January, and weather forecasters say it will stick around for a few more days. Today’s high will again be in the 50s and temperatures aren’t expected to drop until Thursday. Even then, highs will be in the 30s … warmer than average.
Metoreologist Chris Sanders with the National Weather Service in St. Louis says it’s actually weather patterns in the Arctic we can thank for the unseasonably mild conditions.Sanders says those weather patterns in the Arctic that are causing pleasant conditions now can also cause rather unpleasant conditions. If oscillation patterns turn negative and mix with low-pressure fronts and increased precipitation from La Nina … the result is typically blizzard conditions like we saw last February.
Sanders says St. Louis hit a record temperature of 66 Thursday, breaking a record of 65 set in 1955. In fact, lows that day in many parts of the state were higher than average high temperatures this time of year.
The National Weather Center reports his winter has been very mild, especially when compared to last year. The average temperature so far this winter in St. Louis has been 41 degrees compared to 30 degrees last winter during the same period. “This ranks as the sixth warmest winter on record through Jan. 6,” the weather service says. The warmest winter on record was in 1890 with an average temperature of 48 degrees, followed by similarly warm winters in 1878 and 1876.
The last time we saw temperatures like we’re having now in recent history was nearly 30 years ago when the average mark was 40 degrees … that was in 1983.
