Winter Storm — Callaway, Missouri

2022-12-22 · Callaway, Missouri

Event narrative

Between 1 and 2 inches of snow fell. The snow combined with gusty northwest winds (35-45 mph gusts) created extremely hazardous travel with sporadic near-blizzard conditions during the heaviest snowfall. Road conditions deteriorated rapidly during this event.

Wider weather episode

A strong arctic cold front moved through the region December 22nd. The system brought a very rare combination of accumulating snowfall (generally 1-3) combined with very strong northwest winds (20-30 mph sustained, 35-45 mph gusts) which yielded sporadic near-blizzard conditions during the heaviest snowfall. Travel was extremely hazardous if not impossible during this time due to the falling (and blowing) snow. The bottom line is while snowfall amounts were not too substantial, the focus was on the high impacts to travel and the extremely dangerous cold/wind chills. Minimum wind chills Thursday night (12/22) into Friday morning (12/23) were in the -25 to - 40F range. For reference, these numbers were in the top 10 coldest observed at all three of our official climate stations (KSTL, KCOU, KUIN). Temperature wise, widespread below zero lows Friday morning (12/23) and were the coldest December temperatures seen in our area since December 23, 1989 (though about 10 degrees warmer). There were dozens of accidents across the county warning area during this event with a number of injuries ranging from minor to serious, but no deaths were reported.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1065837. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.