ST. LOUIS — A widespread soaking rain is forecast for our part of Missouri and Illinois for the start of the weekend with scattered thunderstorms continuing to move in this afternoon.
A Flash Flood Watch is in posted for the St. Louis area Friday into early Sunday morning.
Scattered showers and thunderstorms will persist into tonight. Rain and thunderstorms become more widespread heading into Friday and especially Friday night. With the clouds and wet weather, high temperatures will bak off into the 70s for Friday into the weekend.
The area of heaviest rain will arrive Friday night through Saturday afternoon. The remnants of Gordon will move very close to St. Louis, getting additional “lift” from our weather front that will be stalled over the bi-state. This “lift” basically increases the area of rain over Missouri and Illinois, leading to a heavy rain threat for much of Friday night through Saturday. By Sunday morning, when the rain moves away, there will be 2” to 5” of rain across the entire region. Some locations will see upwards of 6-8” of rain total with this combination storm system. Severe thunderstorms are not in the forecast today nor through the weekend.
Showers may linger into early Sunday followed by dry weather to start next week. Temperatures will rebound after the cool weekend, back into the 80s by Wednesday and beyond.
In addition to widespread heavier rainfall locally, excessive rain to our north has resulted in higher river levels. River flood warnings are in effect for many locations along the Mississippi, Missouri and Illinois Rivers. While mostly minor flooding is expected along the Mississippi, from Winfield north, moderate flooding can be expected. This will result in some roads being closed by early next week. Major rises on the smaller Rivers can be expected. Backwater from the Mississippi causing the Meramec at Arnold to rise above flood stage.
Stay with 5 on Your Side as we track the rain and thunderstorms across the region into this weekend.
