10 of St. Louis' most wicked holiday-wrecking weather events

Road conditions became so treacherous that officials briefly closed Highway 40 (Interstate 64) near Vandeventer Avenue shortly after 7 p.m. after a series of accidents within a few yards of one another on a downhill stretch. The wrecks involved 10 vehicles, but only one person had minor injuries.

The ice also forced officials to close Interstate 70 at two points near Lake St. Louis in St. Charles County for part of the evening. 

The storm first touched down in far north Jefferson County, touched down again at the county line, skipped northeast along Highway 30 and crossed Highway 141, when the tornado picked up a vehicle driven by a 70-year-old woman and slammed it sideways into a median wall on Highway 141. She died a week later from her injuries.

That storm crossed the Meramec River, crossed I-270, then grew stronger, moving one home almost 50 yards from its foundation, leaving the worst damage in Sunset Hills, where several homes were destroyed. Lewis Place and Robertsville, an unincorporated area of eastern Franklin County, also were hit hard.

Weaker tornadoes also touched down in the north part of St. Louis, going through The Ville and North Riverfront neighborhoods, Ballwin, and Augusta in St. Charles County.

An unwelcome icy surprise greeted last-minute shoppers, starting on Dec. 23. With most secondary streets still snow-packed from a previous storm, a brutal cold front dropped the temperature to 9 below zero and brought wind, leaving the wind chill well below that.

Christmas Eve was no better. Santa brought the area a heaping dose of Arctic chill. The low temperature hit 13 below, which broke a 101-year-old record, and the -41° wind chill marked the third-lowest recorded value in St. Louis history, according to the National Weather Service.

On Christmas, the high reached all of 7 below, still the lowest high temperature recorded on that date. 

And if the cold weren't bad enough on its own, at least 10 people died in cold-related fatalities, including three on Christmas.

In St. Louis, a Fire Department spokesman said it had received at least 80 reports of pipe breaks by sunset on Christmas in all parts of the city, and thousands of homes in the region had no heat or electricity.

A water sprinkler sstem bursting at a gym sent 6 inches of water pouring onto Dorsett Road, forcing St. Louis County police to close that road near Interstate 270 for several hours on the day after Christmas.

High winds caused plenty of problems, though. An Affton man died when high winds capsized his 18-foot johnboat on the Mississippi River near Alton. And the gusts knocked a tree onto an eastbound MetroLink train and its power line between Belleville Memorial Hospital and the Fairview Heights station. No one was hurt, though the 25-30 passengers were stuck for two hours.

The snow and wind cut power to about 18,000 customers in north and far west St. Louis County, and some in South County.

Officials closed Interstate 44 near Highway 141 (above) when floodwaters inundated the roads. In all, flooding forced nearly 300 roads across Missouri to close, with several in the St. Louis area.

At least eight people drowned in Missouri because of floodwater, according to the governor's office.

In all, nearly 8 inches of combined snow and sleet fell at Lambert International Airport, though totals dropped south and east of there. A bitter cold spell followed the storm, leaving the area iced over for much of the next week.

The wintry mess made roads slippery and cut electricity to some residents after branches heavy from ice fell on power lines. But it could have been much worse: Most area forecasters predicted at least a foot of snow for the St. Louis metro area, and snow totals of 12-18 inches were reported as close as 60 miles northwest and north of St. Louis.

As temperatures and occasional snow fell overnight, things became worse for anyone trying to get on the roads. In all, 1.7 inches of snow fell on the area, but scores of vehicles slid into ditches off highways or got into accidents.

As for kids, they didn't seem to have too big a problem, taking the chance to build a snow fort (above) on the holiday.

A narrow band saw almost an inch of sleet in the evening, and most of the problems stayed north of St. Louis. But Lambert Field wound up with almost 5 inches of snow, parts of western St. Louis County had 3 inches and less fell further south.

That's not to say the storm didn't cause any problems. More than 100,000 customers in the Metro East had no digital cable TV or Internet service for about nine hours after the top of the bed of a salt truck dumping salt cut a major fiber optic cable that was about 16 feet off the ground.

Florissant police reported some stranded motorists after they flooded their engines by hitting the water too fast. Other cars also stalled at a construction site at Lindbergh Boulevard and Watson Road, which had water 6 inches deep.

South Lindbergh Boulevard just south of Tesson Ferry Road was under 6 inches of water when a storm drain clogged, leaving the road temporarily blocked. The intersection of Hall Street and Riverview Boulevard in St. Louis was impassable from high water.