What caused the high snowfall amounts in St. Louis was a heavy snow band that set up over the area most of the mid morning and afternoon. These bands are thin ribbons where the heaviest snow falls and even thunder was reported at times. There was more than one band, as you can see from the map below made by the National Weather Service. Some spots in the heaviest band had 9"-12" of snow. However, there was a VERY sharp drop off in snowfall outside of the heavy band. For example, Ellisville in Western St. Louis County reported 10.5" of snow. But If you were to travel just 8 miles Northwest to Weldon Spring, in St. Charles County, the snow was only 3.5". It was all about being in the band of heavy snow or being out- that was the difference between a few inches and nearly a foot of snow!
Another fairly impressive storm system is already in the works this morning across the southern plains states and will work to produce heavy amounts of snow in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee and the Ohio River Valley through the next 36 hours. Thankfully (for those who are tired of winter and are ready to move onto spring), this storm will stay far enough south of Mid-Missouri that we won't see any accumulating snow, but just a few flurries on Friday. Looking ahead into next week, the upper-level air pattern will become more zonal (west to east) and temperatures should begin to moderate just a bit ... at least to seasonal readings. Bring on spring!!
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