ST. LOUIS - Today, highs in the St. Louis area may, just maybe, could possibly hit 80 degrees.
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This is a radical difference from a few weeks ago when temperatures were exceeding two digits and reaching 100 without even factoring the heat indexes. National Weather Service (NWS) Meteorologist Patrick Walsh, of the St. Louis NWS, said this weather pattern should be maintained through at least next Thursday, which is as far as the NWS is currently making predictions.
"We are sitting pretty much under a trough," Walsh said. "We have a big ridge of high pressure, with a low pressure system centered in the Great Lakes. So, we are having winds from the north and northwest, meaning we are getting some nice Canadian air coming down."
Friday's projected high in the City of St. Louis is 78, which is "nowhere close" to historic numbers, Walsh said, but is within 10 degrees of the average high temperature. Lows are predicted to drop to 60 degrees in the city, with outlying areas seeing lows in the upper 50s.
"It's going to be pretty chilly tonight," Walsh said. "For the rest of the period, we should see low to mid 60s for lows."
Saturday will again see highs in the upper 70s, and predicted precipitation west of St. Louis from Saturday night into Sunday morning should keep highs in the 70s again on Sunday.
Temperatures will increase gradually to the low to mid 80s as next week progresses, with lows still in the 60s, Walsh said.
Precipitation should also be at a minimum over the next seven days, with the main exception at this time being Saturday night into Sunday.
Everyone on Facebook posting about fall, Halloween and the dreaded pumpkin spice lattes should not get too excited over the prospect of this being a sign of an early autumn, however.
"It is just a pattern shift," Walsh said. "We were stuck in a pattern and it broke. I wouldn't call it an early fall. We still have most of August and all of September to go through, and I expect the pattern to keep changing."
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