Updates with new forecast
ST. LOUIS • The area dodged the first wave of snow, but a second wave is now starting to pound the area.
The National Weather Service has issued a winter weather advisory for the region through tonight.
For areas south of Highway 44 in Missouri and Highway 64 in Illinois, a late morning storm is expected to start as rain or sleet. For the areas to the north it will start as snow. But by this afternoon and early evening, the entire region should be hit with snow or thundersnow, leaving accumulations of nearly 9 inches.
Rain began falling Saturday evening at Lambert St. Louis International Airport, and at least one airline — Southwest — began cancelling flights.
The airline, Lambert’s largest, cancelled several flights leaving between 8 and 10 a.m. from St. Louis to Chicago, Denver, Dallas, Los Angeles and New York, among other cities.
Its website notes that the airline is "monitoring" winter weather moving into the Midwest, and that flights through Monday could be "delayed, diverted, or cancelled."
Brad Hawkins, a spokesman for Southwest, said the plan was to land all flights coming in to Lambert Saturday night, and get the first batch out early Sunday morning.
The company was hoping to get planes back to Lambert by later that morning, in anticipation that the snow will ease up.
Hawkins acknowledged, however, that the weather may not cooperate.
“As the snow moves, we move the plan,” Hawkins said.
Cancelling mid-morning flights on Sunday may well be prudent, said Mark Britt, a National Weather Service meteorologist stationed in Weldon Springs.
Britt said that the weather service still anticipates between 6 and 8 inches of snow in the metro area, with the heaviest downpour coming midmorning to late-afternoon.
And thundersnow — when thunderclouds carry lightning and heavier precipitation into the snowstorm — is still a definite possibility.
By between 10 a.m. and noon, visibility was expected to drop and snow will become the heaviest, Britt said, with no real slowdown until late in the afternoon or early evening.
“During that time, we’re going to see a rapid accumulation of snow,” Britt said.
The city of St. Louis’s emergency management agency warned Saturday afternoon that travel during the snowstorm will be “extremely difficult… if not impossible.”
It recommended travel only with a full tank of gas, snow shovel, flashlight, cellphone, blankets and extra warm clothing.
The Missouri Department of Transportation put out a travel advisory Saturday evening warning of “heavy, wet snow with limited visibility.” Residents, the advisory said, should stay off roads in central and northern Missouri Saturday night and early Sunday “unless absolutely necessary.”
“Give MoDOT crews a chance to clear roads,” the advisory requested.
Crews, it said, would be working overnight and all day Sunday.
For updated road conditions, go to www.modot.org.
ST. LOUIS • The area dodged the first wave of snow, but a second wave is now starting to pound the area.
The National Weather Service has issued a winter weather advisory for the region through tonight.
For areas south of Highway 44 in Missouri and Highway 64 in Illinois, a late morning storm is expected to start as rain or sleet. For the areas to the north it will start as snow. But by this afternoon and early evening, the entire region should be hit with snow or thundersnow, leaving accumulations of nearly 9 inches.
Rain began falling Saturday evening at Lambert St. Louis International Airport, and at least one airline — Southwest — began cancelling flights.
The airline, Lambert’s largest, cancelled several flights leaving between 8 and 10 a.m. from St. Louis to Chicago, Denver, Dallas, Los Angeles and New York, among other cities.
Its website notes that the airline is "monitoring" winter weather moving into the Midwest, and that flights through Monday could be "delayed, diverted, or cancelled."
Brad Hawkins, a spokesman for Southwest, said the plan was to land all flights coming in to Lambert Saturday night, and get the first batch out early Sunday morning.
The company was hoping to get planes back to Lambert by later that morning, in anticipation that the snow will ease up.
Hawkins acknowledged, however, that the weather may not cooperate.
“As the snow moves, we move the plan,” Hawkins said.
Cancelling mid-morning flights on Sunday may well be prudent, said Mark Britt, a National Weather Service meteorologist stationed in Weldon Springs.
Britt said that the weather service still anticipates between 6 and 8 inches of snow in the metro area, with the heaviest downpour coming midmorning to late-afternoon.
And thundersnow — when thunderclouds carry lightning and heavier precipitation into the snowstorm — is still a definite possibility.
By between 10 a.m. and noon, visibility was expected to drop and snow will become the heaviest, Britt said, with no real slowdown until late in the afternoon or early evening.
“During that time, we’re going to see a rapid accumulation of snow,” Britt said.
The city of St. Louis’s emergency management agency warned Saturday afternoon that travel during the snowstorm will be “extremely difficult… if not impossible.”
It recommended travel only with a full tank of gas, snow shovel, flashlight, cellphone, blankets and extra warm clothing.
The Missouri Department of Transportation put out a travel advisory Saturday evening warning of “heavy, wet snow with limited visibility.” Residents, the advisory said, should stay off roads in central and northern Missouri Saturday night and early Sunday “unless absolutely necessary.”
“Give MoDOT crews a chance to clear roads,” the advisory requested.
Crews, it said, would be working overnight and all day Sunday.
For updated road conditions, go to www.modot.org.