ST. LOUIS — The St. Louis region woke up Saturday morning to an unexpected surprise: snow! More than seven inches fell in parts of Illinois, including a whopping 7.5 inches in St. Clair County near the city of Freeburg and 6.1 inches at Scott Air Force Base. Other communities in Illinois, including Belleville, Waterloo and O’Fallon saw four to seven inches fall overnight. Here’s a look at the highest snow totals:
In Missouri, the heaviest snow fell just to the south of the St. Louis metro area in Jefferson County. De Soto had the highest total with more than 6 inches. However, enough fell in the city of St. Louis to cause multiple issues on the area interstate system. Numerous crashes were reported early Saturday morning, including one that closed several lanes of Interstate 64 in downtown St. Louis. Other crashes have been reported on Interstate 44 in St. Louis, leading to several slick spots on the road.
The Missouri Department of Transportation said they started receiving calls at about 2:30 a.m. and deployed crews to treat roads. Crashes made treating the roads difficult. Officials warned drivers to take care on bridges, overpasses, ramps and any elevated surfaces.
Once treated, roads will clear up quickly.
So what happened? Overnight snow pushed further north than expected and was much more intense. Incredibly, those intense snowfall rates overcame ground temperatures that were 15 degrees above freezing, leading to roads becoming slick and dangerous.
Temperatures will be cooler than forecast for spots that received 4 to 6 inches of snowfall. Highs for those areas will be in the low to mid-30s.
For spots where snow did not stick, temperatures will make it into the upper 30s.
Take care on roads in St. Louis, Jefferson County, the Metro East and greater downstate Illinois.
