STL to AK and Back Again

Brrr...I just got back from a New Years trip to see friends in Anchorage, AK. Of course, I expected it to be cold. It is Alaska. But while I was there, Anchorage experienced the coldest weather it'd seen since 1999. Six straight days of temperatures below zero....from Dec. 30 until Jan. 4. Nighttime lows were between -15 and -20.  Normal highs for this time of year are around 20 in Anchorage, so this was even big time cold for them. The cold wasn't limited to Anchorage obviously. Fairbanks (Interior Alaska is always the coldest) was around -40 and the North Slope was about -25.  Look out, some of this Arctic air is headed to St. Louis this weekend.


 

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas Day, whether you celebrate it or not.  We turn our eyes to some active weather heading for St. Louis. A warm front is moving through this morning and our highs this afternoon will be near 60 degrees! Where there is a warm front, a cold front will follow and it will be here Saturday morning. Along that cold front, rain and thunderstorms will develop. We may be dealing with some severe weather between 9am and Noon on Saturday. Please tune in to FOX 2 News Saturday morning at 9am for an update.

Our Song Of The Day today is "Storm Front" by Billy Joel.  I know... it's not a Christmas song, but there aren't many good Christmas songs about thunderstorms.

I hope Santa brought you everything you wished for! I got the new suitcase I wanted!!

-Angela

 

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah to all!

It's Christmas Eve morning and the fog is thick.  Rain is moving in...and it is rain since temperatures are above freezing. Those temps will be falling all day, but by the time we are at or below freezing most of the precip will be gone. So it's really not in the forecast for most of us, but our Song of the Day is "White Christmas" I wish you and yours all the best this holiday season!

 

It was my second year to get a chance to eat some of the best barbecue St. Louis has to offer...and once again it was all for a good cause. On Sunday, I headed out to Millstadt, IL to hang with Tim Ezell, Andy Banker, and the rest of the FOX 2 BBQ Crew at the 8th Annual Millstadt Optimist Club BBQ Cook-off. Snoots, Chili, Ribs, and Pork Steaks were all on the competition menu....I actually ate my first snoot this year...interesting. 
  It was another award winning year for FOX 2. Tim and his amazing ribs took 3rd place! And Charlie Berra and his pork steaks won the team 1st place!!! Go us! 
  Of course, the whole event is for a great cause, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Thank you Tim, Andy, and everyone else on the FOX 2 Team for a really fun afternoon!



Click here to see more photos!

Hey everyone, amazing weather Sunday morning as the remnants of Ike roared across the region. If you have pictures and /or video, please share them with us here!  Please tell us where the video was taken!!

 Wild week of weather here in St. Louis with something for everybody. After a cool weekend, Monday will bring a return to summer with warmer temps and higher humidity. A cold front will sweep through the area on Monday afternoon and that means showers and thunderstorms for the region. Some of the storms could be strong during the afternoon/evening hours on Monday.

 Then things go quiet again for a couple of days with sunshine and highs in the upper 70’s. By Thursday though there are a lot of questions. A front will be pushing in but models have been all over the place with the timing of its passing. On Saturday, it looked like rain Thursday night. But when I got in Sunday morning, it was looking more and more like Friday would be wet. That’s what concerns me. The latest track of Hurricane Ike takes it inland along the Texas-Louisiana border late Friday. If it curves north, Gulf moisture may meet up with this front and we could see heavy rains again around St. Louis the beginning of next weekend.

  Speaking of Ike, currently the Cat. 4 storm is pulling away from the Turks and Caicos Islands. Next in its path is the Bahamas and Cuba. The Florida Keys could be hit hard as well. The storm should lose some punch over Cuba, but regain strength as it enters the Gulf Of Mexico. We have to keep a close eye on this storm as it heads west.

Ahhh….summer in St. Louis. Wait a minute….this isn’t summer in St. Louis. Hot but not oppressive? Humid, but bearable? North and easterly winds? What???

Ok seriously, we have weather to talk about. High pressure controls our weather into Monday. But it is continuing to move east and we know what that means….a return to the southerly flow and more humidity into Tuesday.

But our eyes are on Hurricane Gustav, both because of how it will affect the Gulf Coast and how it will affect St. Louis weather. Two potential paths for Gustav.

1) It hits near New Orleans and then continues north into the Midwest and St. Louis.
2) It hits near New Orleans and then continues west into Texas and the desert Southwest.

You’ll notice that both options include a very powerful hurricane hitting New Orleans. Not something those folks wanted so soon, just three years, after Katrina. Oh, P.S. don’t forget about Tropical Storm Hanna which is headed toward Florida.

Mixing in with possible moisture from Gustav will be a cold front dropping in from the northwest. So rain and storms are a good bet for Wednesday and Thursday.  Behind the cold front is some very cool air. Highs in St. Louis by then end of the week could be in the upper 70’s.

-Angela


To keep up to date on the tropics, click here.

Sarah Palin For V.P. Wow folks, this is very, very interesting to me. I lived in Anchorage, AK for three years working for the CBS station there as weekend meteorologist and reporter. I covered the Governor’s race where Sarah Palin won right up until I was offered my job here at FOX 2 in Oct. 2006. Palin won that election by surprise, and now, less than two years later, she’s going to be a Vice Presidential nominee.

Why in McCain picking her? I have several reasons that I’ve thought of:
1) She’s young, just 44…energize the campaign
2) She’s a woman….here come more Hillary Clinton supporters.
3) Energy!!!

Sarah Palin has a long background in Alaskan oil and gas development. She spent two years as ethics commissioner under former Gov. Murkowski. She resigned in protest after fellow republicans ignored some of her whistle blowing complaints of ethics violations. She ran her gubernatorial race based on reforming the Alaska gas pipeline deal that is now in the works. McCain has promised to find more sources of domestic oil and Alaska and someone who knows oil may be the key. Palin is known for her independence from big oil companies, while still promoting resource development. She’s known to be a moderate republican, out-spoken, and a go getter. She’s strongly pro-life and so is McCain. We shall see…
                                                       
                                                     

Good morning and happy Labor Day weekend!  Storms have move to the south and southeast of St. Louis and our clouds will be clearing into the afternoon. High pressure will build in for the weekend and that means pleasant temps and comfortable humidity levels. We'll take it! To celebrate the unofficial end of summer, our song of the day today is "In the Summertime" by Mungo Jerry.

Have a safe and happy weekend!

Angela

Good morning! Let's all say welcome back to summer (at least for a day). Warm and humid on our Thursday. Highs will be near 90. Our Song of the Day today is "Sticky Summer" by John Denver.  Chance of rain this evening into the overnight. Some strong storms are possible as well.  Stay with FOX 2 for the latest!

Have a good day!
Angela

 

Good morning! It's another nice summer day in St. Louis. A few degrees warmer, a bit more humid...but over all another great day for late-August. So our Song of the Day today is "Sunshine and Summertime" by Faith Hill. She is so pretty...:-)

Have a good day everyone!
-Angela

Good morning! Some low level clouds overnight have kept our temperatures bit warmer this morning than they were yesterday morning., but it's still a pleasant start. Another great day with lower humidity, sunshine, and highs in the low 80's. So our Song of the Day today is " Here Comes The Sun" by the Beatles!
Have a good day all!
Angela

Great weather in St. Louis! High pressure in control and that means sunshine, cool temps, and low humidity! Our Song of the Day today is  Sun Is Shining by Bob Marley.

 

It's another Song of the Day give-away today! Register for a four pack of tickets to see Martina McBride this Friday August 29 at 7:30pm at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater.   Enter as often as you like, but you must enter by 9am today! A total of five winners will be randomly drawn. Good luck!

-Angela

Click here to head to the contest!

 

 

An area of high pressure is dropping south into the upper Mississippi River Valley and will dominate the weather in the bi-state area over the next few days. That means northerly winds, cooler temps, and lower humidity.  This High along with the weak, almost stalled out, cold front ahead of it will keep the remains of Tropical Storm Fay away from St. Louis. There will be some more clouds in the southeast corner of the FOX 2 viewing area…maybe a shower or two. On Sunday, there will be a bit of a battle over LA, MS, and TN as Fay tries to move north but the ridge tries to keep it south. The remnants of Fay will eventually kick off to the northeast.

  We remain trapped between High sliding into the Great Lakes to the North and Fay’s remnants through midweek. Another front moves in Thursday night. Right now, things are not looking very impressive in the models. But we’ll need to keep an eye on it.

 Speaking of keeping an eye on it, we’ll have to watch the Caribbean just south of Puerto Rico. Could be area where we see some tropical development in the coming week.

  I’m in on FOX 2 News In The Morning all this week, so we’ll see you soon!

-Angela

High pressure is in control of our weather for the next few days. That means drier, cooler easterly winds and lots of sunshine. Temperatures stay below average for the early half of the week, but things begin to change slightly by mid-week. The high that’s in control will drift just enough east that a more southerly wind will creep in. That will boost temps a few degrees by then end of the week. It will also allow a chance of rain to move in by Thursday. It’s a small chance, but it’s there.

I really want to focus on Tropical Storm Fay. This could be a big problem for Florida for a couple of reason. A nearly stationary front south of St. Louis has kept the storm track over the Gulf Coast and Southeast U.S. for almost the last week. So northern Florida has seen very active weather already. Now, here comes Fay. As I type this at noon on Sunday, the track of this storm moves it across Cuba, across the Florida Keys, and over the Florida peninsula…almost due north. Tropical Storms warnings and Hurricane watches are in effect for the Keys. Fay is moving to the WNW at about 13 mph and her winds are sustained at 50 mph. Forecasters are expecting some strengthening until it get over Cuba. Combine that stationary front with a slow moving tropical system and let’s just say this makes a bad week to be traveling to Florida.