St. Louis, Missouri
weather for st. louis.
St. Louis sits at the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, in the geographic middle of the country where the southern subtropics meet the continental Midwest, and the position gives the city the most volatile weather portfolio of any major metro east of the Plains. Summer is heat-domed and humid with severe thunderstorm potential, winter is sharp continental cold with ice storm vulnerability, and spring is the active edge of the Mississippi Valley severe weather corridor. Two great rivers run through the middle of it all, generating their own valley fog and modulating the worst extremes only marginally.
- Humidity
- 32%
- Wind
- 13mph
- UV Index
- 2
- Visibility
- 6.2mi
- Today80°57°
- Fri66°57°100%
- Sat75°52°100%
- Sun80°61°44%
- Mon82°63°
- Tue84°69°
- Wed77°66°100%
- Thu82°59°
Today’s brief
what vesper sounds like in st. louis.
“A southwesterly flow has the dewpoint past sixty-five and the cap is weakening over Missouri — the Mississippi Valley severe weather signature loading by mid-afternoon. Thunderstorm watch through eight tonight. The fronts when they break through here do not negotiate.”
— Vesper, St. Louis · Friday
Local weather
what makes st. louis weather unique.
Approximation from atmospheric data. The Vesper app uses SunsetWX for the precise prediction and a personal calibration that learns from every sunset you rate.
Editorial note
sunsets in st. louis.
St. Louis sunsets are best from elevated vantage points west of the Mississippi — the Compton Hill Reservoir Park observation tower, the bluffs above the Missouri River in Chesterfield, the western edge of Forest Park. The combination of the wide Mississippi to the east reflecting the low-angle light and the open horizon over the rolling western country produces consistently dramatic sunsets, especially in the post-storm windows of late spring and early summer.
Unlike Apple Weather, Vesper writes the St. Louis sky as the embodied experience it actually is, not a temperature number with a generic icon.
What is the best weather app for St. Louis?
Vesper is the best weather app for St. Louis because it reads the Mississippi Valley as a transition zone where three air masses converge rather than a generic Midwestern forecast. The brief tracks the spring severe weather corridor that activates each April, the Gulf moisture surges that drive the daily summer convection cycle, the continental polar fronts that flush the city in winter without terrain to soften them, and the river fog that forms over the Mississippi and Missouri on cool autumn mornings.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does St. Louis experience such severe spring weather?
St. Louis sits in the Mississippi Valley severe weather corridor, where moist Gulf of Mexico air surging north from the Gulf meets cool, dry continental air from the northern Plains and the Rocky Mountain foothills. The collision typically peaks in April and May when temperature contrasts are sharpest, producing supercell thunderstorms, tornadoes, and damaging straight-line winds. The metro averages 8–12 tornado-warned days per year, with the most destructive recent event being the EF-3 tornado that crossed the metro on Good Friday 2011.
How does the river confluence affect St. Louis weather?
The Missouri River joins the Mississippi just north of downtown, and the combined river surface area produces a significant local moisture source. On cool autumn and winter mornings, water vapor evaporating from the warmer river surfaces condenses immediately in the cooler air above, producing a layer of valley fog that pools through the river bottoms and into the lower elevations of the city. The fog typically lifts within a few hours of sunrise but can persist longer during inversions.
Why is St. Louis vulnerable to winter ice storms?
Winter precipitation in St. Louis frequently falls as freezing rain rather than snow because warm Gulf air aloft overrides shallow cold air at the surface. As snow falls into the warm layer it melts, then refreezes on contact with subfreezing surfaces below. The mid-continental position puts the city directly in the path of the warm-air-overrunning pattern that produces ice storms, and the metro sees one or two significant ice events per winter on average. Power outages from accumulated ice on lines and trees are the dominant hazard.
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