Geography of St. Louis
This article's lead section may be too long. (April 2022) |
St. Louis is located at 38°38′53″N 90°12′44″W / 38.648056°N 90.212222°W.[1]
The city is built primarily on bluffs and terraces that rise 100–200 feet (30–61 m) above the western banks of the Mississippi River, just south of the Missouri-Mississippi confluence. Much of the area is a fertile and gently rolling prairie that features low hills and broad, shallow valleys. Both the Mississippi River and the Missouri River have cut large valleys with wide flood plains.
The St. Louis
Near the southern boundary of the City of St. Louis (separating it from St. Louis County) is the River des Peres, virtually the only river or stream within the city limits that is not entirely underground. Most of River des Peres was either channelized or put underground in the 1920s and early 1930s. The lower section of the river was the site of some of the worst flooding of the Great Flood of 1993.
Near the central, western boundary of the city is Forest Park, site of the 1904 World's fair, the Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904, and the 1904 Summer Olympics, the first Olympic Games held in North America. At the time, St. Louis was the fourth most populous city in the United States.
The Missouri River forms the northern border of St. Louis County, exclusive of a few areas where the river has changed its course. The Meramec River forms most of its southern border. To the east is the City and the Mississippi River.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 171.3 km2 (66.2 mi2). 160.4 km2 (61.9 mi2) of it is land and 11.0 km2 (4.2 mi2 or 6.39%) of it is water.
Metropolitan statistical area
The St. Louis
Cityscape
The city is divided into 79 neighborhoods. The divisions have no legal standing, although some neighborhood associations administer grants or hold veto power over historic-district development. Nevertheless, the social and political influence of neighborhood identity is profound. Some hold avenues of massive stone edifices built as palaces for heads of state visiting the 1904 World's Fair. Others offer tidy working-class bungalows, loft districts, or areas hard-hit by social problems and unemployment. Many of them have retained - quite consciously and deliberately - a camaraderie that is missing from many American towns today.
Among the best-known, architecturally significant, or well-visited neighborhoods are
, Hortense Place and Wydown/Skinker.Climate
St. Louis | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Climate chart (explanation) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
The climate is humid subtropical (Köppen: Cfa), but all around Greater St. Louis has a humid continental climate (Dfa) through the USA isoterm, with a winter that sustains in the coldest month temperatures below 0 °C more easily, clear evidence of an urban heat island, which in the future may cover an even larger area and agglutinate cities and villages to the south.[4] It straddles the border between USDA Plant Hardiness Zones 6B and 7A,[5] indicating the coldest temperature of the year is typically around 0 °F (−18 °C). With neither large mountains nor large bodies of water to moderate its temperature, it is subject to both cold Arctic air and hot, humid tropical air from the Gulf of Mexico. The city has four distinct seasons. Spring is the wettest season and produces severe weather ranging from tornadoes to winter storms. Summers are hot and humid; temperatures of 90 °F (32 °C) or higher occur 43 days a year.[6] The average window for such temperatures is May 19 thru September 14.[3]
Fall is mild with lower humidity and can produce intermittent bouts of heavy rainfall with the first freeze of the season on average falling on November 2 (the last on average falls on April 3); the first measurable (0.1 inches (0.25 cm)) snow, often not counting
The average annual temperature recorded at nearby
Winter (December through February) is the driest season, with an average 7.5 in (191 mm) of precipitation. The average seasonal snowfall is 18.2 inches (46 cm), typically falling from December to March. The heaviest one-day snowfall total was 12.8 in (32.5 cm) on February 26, 1906. Spring (March through May) is typically the wettest season, with 4.7 in (119 mm) of precipitation; however, the heaviest 24-hour rainfall total was 9.04 in (229.6 mm) on July 26, 2022. Dry spells lasting one to two weeks are common during the growing seasons.
St. Louis experiences thunderstorms 48 days a year on average.[9] Especially in the spring, these storms can often be severe, with high winds, large hail and tornadoes. Lying within the hotbed of Tornado Alley, St. Louis reigns as one of the most frequently tornadic metropolitan areas, and has an extensive history of particularly damaging tornadoes. Severe flooding, such as the Great Flood of 1993, may occur in spring and summer; the (often rapid) melting of thick snow cover upstream either the Missouri or Mississippi Rivers can contribute to springtime flooding.
Some late autumns feature the warm weather known as Indian summer; some years see roses in bloom as late as early December.
Climate data for St. Louis, Missouri (Lambert–St. Louis Int'l), 1991−2020 normals,[a] extremes 1874−present[b] | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
Record high °F (°C) | 77 (25) |
85 (29) |
92 (33) |
93 (34) |
98 (37) |
108 (42) |
115 (46) |
110 (43) |
104 (40) |
94 (34) |
86 (30) |
76 (24) |
115 (46) |
Mean maximum °F (°C) | 64.7 (18.2) |
71.0 (21.7) |
79.4 (26.3) |
86.4 (30.2) |
90.4 (32.4) |
95.5 (35.3) |
99.2 (37.3) |
99.1 (37.3) |
93.4 (34.1) |
87.0 (30.6) |
75.5 (24.2) |
66.9 (19.4) |
100.7 (38.2) |
Mean daily maximum °F (°C) | 40.4 (4.7) |
45.8 (7.7) |
56.6 (13.7) |
68.0 (20.0) |
77.1 (25.1) |
85.9 (29.9) |
89.6 (32.0) |
88.3 (31.3) |
81.1 (27.3) |
69.2 (20.7) |
55.5 (13.1) |
44.5 (6.9) |
66.8 (19.3) |
Daily mean °F (°C) | 32.1 (0.1) |
36.7 (2.6) |
46.6 (8.1) |
57.5 (14.2) |
67.5 (19.7) |
76.5 (24.7) |
80.4 (26.9) |
78.8 (26.0) |
71.0 (21.7) |
59.1 (15.1) |
46.5 (8.1) |
36.5 (2.5) |
57.4 (14.1) |
Mean daily minimum °F (°C) | 23.8 (−4.6) |
27.6 (−2.4) |
36.7 (2.6) |
47.0 (8.3) |
57.9 (14.4) |
67.2 (19.6) |
71.1 (21.7) |
69.3 (20.7) |
60.9 (16.1) |
49.1 (9.5) |
37.4 (3.0) |
28.5 (−1.9) |
48.0 (8.9) |
Mean minimum °F (°C) | 4.4 (−15.3) |
9.6 (−12.4) |
17.8 (−7.9) |
32.2 (0.1) |
43.5 (6.4) |
55.5 (13.1) |
61.4 (16.3) |
60.1 (15.6) |
47.1 (8.4) |
33.6 (0.9) |
22.0 (−5.6) |
11.0 (−11.7) |
1.2 (−17.1) |
Record low °F (°C) | −22 (−30) |
−18 (−28) |
−5 (−21) |
20 (−7) |
31 (−1) |
43 (6) |
51 (11) |
47 (8) |
32 (0) |
21 (−6) |
1 (−17) |
−16 (−27) |
−22 (−30) |
Average precipitation inches (mm) | 2.59 (66) |
2.23 (57) |
3.50 (89) |
4.73 (120) |
4.82 (122) |
4.49 (114) |
3.93 (100) |
3.38 (86) |
2.96 (75) |
3.15 (80) |
3.42 (87) |
2.50 (64) |
41.70 (1,059) |
Average snowfall inches (cm) | 5.7 (14) |
4.3 (11) |
2.3 (5.8) |
0.2 (0.51) |
0.0 (0.0) |
0.0 (0.0) |
0.0 (0.0) |
0.0 (0.0) |
0.0 (0.0) |
0.0 (0.0) |
0.9 (2.3) |
3.2 (8.1) |
16.6 (42) |
Average precipitation days (≥ 0.01 in) | 9.3 | 8.7 | 10.8 | 11.5 | 12.6 | 9.8 | 8.9 | 8.4 | 7.3 | 8.5 | 9.0 | 9.0 | 113.8 |
Average snowy days (≥ 0.1 in) | 4.7 | 3.9 | 1.7 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.8 | 3.2 | 14.5 |
Average relative humidity (%)
|
73.0 | 72.0 | 68.3 | 63.5 | 66.5 | 67.1 | 68.0 | 70.0 | 71.6 | 68.7 | 72.2 | 75.8 | 69.7 |
Average dew point °F (°C) | 20.1 (−6.6) |
24.1 (−4.4) |
33.1 (0.6) |
42.3 (5.7) |
52.9 (11.6) |
62.1 (16.7) |
66.6 (19.2) |
65.1 (18.4) |
58.6 (14.8) |
46.0 (7.8) |
36.0 (2.2) |
25.5 (−3.6) |
44.4 (6.9) |
Mean monthly sunshine hours | 161.2 | 158.3 | 198.3 | 223.5 | 266.5 | 291.9 | 308.9 | 269.8 | 236.1 | 208.4 | 140.9 | 129.9 | 2,593.7 |
Percent possible sunshine | 53 | 53 | 53 | 56 | 60 | 66 | 68 | 64 | 63 | 60 | 47 | 44 | 58 |
Average ultraviolet index | 1.7 | 2.7 | 4.5 | 6.4 | 7.9 | 9.0 | 9.1 | 8.2 | 6.3 | 4.0 | 2.3 | 1.6 | 5.3 |
Source 1: NOAA (relative humidity, dew point, and sun 1961−1990)[11][3][12] | |||||||||||||
Source 2: UV Index Today (1995 to 2022)[13] |
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org. |
See or edit raw graph data.
Flora and fauna
Before the founding of the city, the area was prairie and open forest maintained by burning by
Large
Frogs are commonly found in the springtime, especially after extensive wet periods. Common species include the
Adjacent communities
The following communities border the city of St. Louis directly:
In addition to the above named places, there are unincorporated parts of Madison County, Illinois; St. Clair County, Illinois; and St. Louis County, Missouri which border St. Louis. The Illinois communities of Brooklyn and Venice lie across the Mississippi River, but do not border St. Louis because the river itself is not part of their territory.
See also
References
- ^ "US Gazetteer files: 2010, 2000, and 1990". United States Census Bureau. 2011-02-12. Retrieved 2011-04-23.
- ^ New Data Confirms Strong Earthquake Risk to Central U.S. | LiveScience
- ^ a b c "NowData – NOAA Online Weather Data". National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved July 22, 2021.
- ^ "Updated Köppen-Geiger climate map of the world". people.eng.unimelb.edu.au. Retrieved 2018-12-20.
- ^ "Arbor Day Foundation - Buy trees, rain forest friendly coffee, greeting cards that plant trees, memorials and celebrations with trees, and more".
- ^ The Climatology of St. Louis and the Bi-State Area. http://www.crh."NWS St. Louis, MO (LSX)".gov/lsx/?n=cli_of_stl
- ^ a b "Just like it felt, July was hottest month on record in St. Louis". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. August 2, 2012.
- ^ Gray, Bryce (Nov 11, 2019). "Rising heat and climate extremes mean questions, challenges for roads, the power grid, and other infrastructure". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Retrieved 2019-11-13.
- ^ "Historical Weather for St. Louis, Missouri". Retrieved October 15, 2009.
- ^ ThreadEx
- ^ "Station Name: MO ST LOUIS LAMBERT INTL AP". U.S. Climate Normals 2020: U.S. Monthly Climate Normals (1991–2020). National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved July 22, 2021.
- ^ "WMO Climate Normals for ST. LOUIS/LAMBERT, MO 1961–1990". National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved July 22, 2021.
- ^ "Historical UV Index Data - St. Louis, MO". UV Index Today. Retrieved April 22, 2023.
- ^ Mean monthly maxima and minima (i.e. the highest and lowest temperature readings during an entire month or year) calculated based on data at said location from 1991 to 2020.
- ^ Official records for St. Louis were kept at the Weather Bureau Office from January 1874 to December 1892, Eads Bridge from January 1893 to December 1929, and at Lambert–St. Louis Int'l since January 1930.[10]