By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
If you thought it was abnormally cold this morning, you were right.
“This is a record cold day for St. Joe,” National Weather Service Meteorologist Spenser Mell tells St. Joseph Post. “The record low was eight in 1986. We actually hit six this morning at Rosecrans (Memorial) Airport. So, we did break the record by two degrees.”
Mell, who works in the Pleasant Hill office, says it will remain very cold today and tonight before beginning to warm up, a little.
Mell confirms just what you thought: this is too early for it to be this cold and for it to snow.
“This is rather early in the season to see these low of temperatures,” Mell says. “We had a very strong Canadian area of high pressure come down which brought in some very cold air. Plus, with the snow on the ground, that also helped to keep those temperatures very cold overnight and this was also early for snow. So, that helped to bring these record cold temperatures to the area.”
It will remain cold today, with a high expected to reach only 27. The low tonight will likely drop to 20.
The National Weather Service forecasts highs Wednesday and Thursday just above 40 with the lows at around 24 before it warms up, back to around normal Friday and Saturday.
“The normal high for today is 55 at St. Joe. The normal low is 33,” Mell says. “So, we’re talking almost 30 degrees below normal for the date.”
It will get a bit warming tomorrow and Thursday before returning to near normal temperatures this weekend. The high Friday is expected to reach 52 with the high Saturday and Sunday forecast to be 53 degrees.