Area Forecast Discussion
Issued by NWS St. Louis, MO
Issued by NWS St. Louis, MO
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235 FXUS63 KLSX 141705 AFDLSX Area Forecast Discussion...Updated Aviation National Weather Service Saint Louis MO 1105 AM CST Fri Nov 14 2025 .KEY MESSAGES... - Unseasonable warmth is expected today and tomorrow, with the potential to reach near daily record highs. - A brief round of rain is likely Monday (50-80%). Confidence is also growing that an active pattern will bring more opportunities for rain Wednesday through Friday. && .SHORT TERM... (Through Late Saturday Afternoon) Issued at 429 AM CST Fri Nov 14 2025 Unseasonably warm conditions remain the primary weather story both today and tomorrow, thanks to persistent southwesterly winds and a ridge of high pressure aloft. In fact, daily record high temperatures will be possible each day, with tomorrow slightly favored for this. As we approach sunrise, some patches of low/mid level stratus is evident on satellite imagery, but this is expected to diminish during the day. Weak southerly flow is in place thanks to a surface low pressure system to our north, but so far low level moisture has been slow to return. As the day progresses, the surface pressure gradient will increase and wind speeds will increase in kind, beginning a period of steady warm/moist advection. While surface dewpoints will slowly increase, it likely will not be enough to produce noteworthy cloud cover aside from a smattering of fairweather cumulus, and the combination of warm air advection and insolation will produce temperatures well into the 70s area-wide. While surface winds are expected to weaken slightly overnight tomorrow in response to the loss of afternoon heating, they will quickly resume in the morning and continue to increase during the afternoon. Meanwhile, a cold front will advance toward the area throughout the day, and potentially reach northern Missouri as early as noon. This will help to increase the pressure gradient ahead of the boundary, and as a result, surface winds are likely to be a bit breezier Saturday compared to Sunday (with gust speeds as high as 25 mph possible). This should help to increase the low level warm air advection, but on the other hand, increasing mid and high level clouds may counteract this warming slightly, and decreases forecast confidence in the temperature forecast a bit. Not only this, but the advancing cold front also adds a bit of uncertainty, as some areas across northern Missouri and western Illinois may see slightly cooler temperatures than Friday, while areas ahead of the boundary may benefit from some compressional warming. In any case, confidence is very high that both days will see well above normal temperatures. Confidence in the final values is highest Friday, and slightly lower Saturday. However, the potential ceiling may also be slightly higher in some areas on the warm side of the frontal boundary on Saturday. Finally, in spite of the gradual moisture advection ahead of the front, it does not appear likely that it will be enough to produce precipitation. It will, however, likely be enough to keep humidity levels high enough to preclude significant fire weather concerns, although we may need to keep an eye on parts of southwest Illinois where currently NBM humidity forecasts dip close to 40%. Southwesterly flow does tend to result in lower than predicted humidity levels, and such an outcome may get us within range of "elevated" conditions. 19 && .LONG TERM... (Saturday Night through Thursday) Issued at 429 AM CST Fri Nov 14 2025 While quiet conditions are expected Sunday, a more active pattern is set to return to the region beginning late Monday, with multiple opportunities for precipitation through the end of the work week On Sunday, the previously mentioned cold front will usher in surface high pressure, keeping things dry and seasonably cool. While an amplified longwave ridge will develop across the central CONUS, deterministic guidance continues to suggest that a shortwave will fight its way through this ridge and into the middle Mississippi River valley late Monday, bringing with it a brief round of rain. While the shortwave itself is somewhat washed out in ensemble guidance considering it`s relatively small scale and some lingering timing variability, precipitation is well represented among members, especially across eastern Missouri and western Illinois. While this likely will not be a washout, confidence is increasing that most areas have a chance to see at least some light rain during this period, with highest chances east of the Mississippi River. Meanwhile, some non-trivial elevated instability is also noted in LREF and NBM ensemble guidance, with a greater than 50% chance of MUCAPE above 500 J/kg Monday evening across much of the area. These probabilities fall off significantly for surface-based instability thanks to Sunday`s cold front, but it does leave open the possibility of a few rumbles of thunder. Forecast confidence decreases significantly beyond Monday night, both in terms of precipitation and temperatures. While confidence is increasing that a southwesterly jet stream pattern will develop across the area over the latter half of the week, considerable variability in the day-to-day details exists among members. For starters, there is massive spread in the temperature forecast Tuesday onward, likely owing to the uncertain position of the surface front following Monday night`s shortwave, followed by the potential for multiple rounds of precipitation from mid to late week. Regarding the latter, confidence continues to grow that southwesterly flow aloft will develop Wednesday onward, punctuated by the arrival of a more significant upper trough sometime late in the week. This is increasingly likely to provide multiple opportunities for rain over the latter half of the week. While this potential is increasing as a general concept, very little agreement exists regarding the day-to-day timing of precipitation and amounts, other than to say that probabilities are highest as the aforementioned trough moves across the area late in the period. Even still, while temperature forecasts remain very uncertain, currently there is a negligible signal for wintry precipitation over the next week, and we would likely have to realize the lowest outlier temperature forecasts for this to be realized. We may, however, need to keep an eye on the potential for thunderstorms late in the week, although again confidence is very low in this potential at this time. 19 && .AVIATION... (For the 18z TAFs through 18z Saturday Afternoon) Issued at 1103 AM CST Fri Nov 14 2025 Confidence is high in dry and VFR flight conditions through the forecast period at all local terminals. A dry front will sink southward through the region tomorrow, causing winds to turn west-southwesterly and strengthen. Elmore && .CLIMATE... Issued at 429 AM CST Fri Nov 14 2025 Daily record high temperatures will be within range both today (11/14) and tomorrow (11/15). Coincidentally, the daily record high temperatures are the same both today and tomorrow at all three sites, and are as follows: St. Louis (STL): 81 degrees (1971), and 81 degrees (1971) Columbia (COU): 78 degrees (1931), and 78 degrees (1950) Quincy (UIN): 75 degrees (1971), and 75 degrees (1950) BRC && .LSX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... MO...None. IL...None. && $$ WFO LSX