ST. LOUIS — The weather this month has left us all weary. Flooding rains, icy conditions and heavy snow, seemingly week after week, so how typical is this in the St. Louis area at this time of year?
5 On Your Side Meteorologist Tracy Hinson sat down with Saint Louis University Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Professor Charles Graves.
"It's not very typical, in February, to be predicting two inches of rain," Graves said.
Typically in February, it's just showers that don't amount to much, half an inch here, quarter of an inch there, but the Gulf of Mexico has had other plans for St. Louis.
"The gulf is just wide open and I don't recall that happening," Graves, a 30-year resident of St. Louis said.
Graves said he likes having four seasons, but not necessarily all crammed into 48 hours. The rapidly shifting weather has been repeating all month. Moisture comes up from the gulf, it rains, temperatures swing in from the north and turns it over to ice and snow.
"That's pretty typical, but to get three of them in a row like this," Graves said of the dynamic weather, "I don't know if I can remember that happening. It might have, but it seems like the atmosphere is repeating its cycle here."
Like many St. Louisans, Graves wants it to stop.
"I told the national weather service to turn down the weather dial, I have had my fill," said.
No such luck, climate scientists like him think turbulent weather streaks are here to stay.
"If these systems continue like we have seen this year, we're going to see these major swings in temperatures and my guess is we are going to get accustomed to it," he said.
Severe weather is also something Graves expects to see more regularly in February. Typically severe weather picks up in March.