LOCAL WEATHER FOR THE METRO EAST
Metro East Weather is an independent forecasting and storm-coverage operation built for the communities of St. Louis Metro East region — Belleville, Edwardsville, O'Fallon, Collinsville, Highland, Waterloo, and the surrounding counties on the east side of the Mississippi. Metro East Weather is owned and operated by Lawrence Digital Media.
Our Mission
Metro East Weather exists because the Metro East deserves more than a forecast clipped from a St. Louis broadcast. "Tornado Alley" is quickly shifting towards Illinois and affecting the Metro East in ways that demand dedicated attention. Our team sifts through all the noise and brings you the information that affects you directly.
Weather-Ready Nation Ambassador
Metro East Weather is a recognized Weather-Ready Nation Ambassador with the National Weather Service. This means we are committed to helping the Metro East prepare for, respond to, and recover from severe weather by sharing timely, accurate warnings and safety information in plain language.
As an Ambassador, we work to build a more weather-ready community through public outreach, real-time storm coverage, and educational content that helps families understand what to do before, during, and after severe weather. We do not speak for the National Weather Service, but we proudly support their mission to protect life and property.
You can verify our Ambassador status and learn more about the program on the official NWS Weather-Ready Nation Ambassador list.
How AI Is Used Here
Metro East Weather does not generate its own forecasts. Every forecast, watch, warning, outlook, and radar image on this site comes from official sources — the National Weather Service, the Storm Prediction Center, NOAA, and Open-Meteo model data. AI is used here as a tool to read those official products the moment they're issued and summarize them into clear, plain-language updates written for the average person in the Metro East.
Think of AI on this site as a translator, not a forecaster. It takes the technical language in an SPC convective outlook, an NWS area forecast discussion, or a severe weather alert and rewrites it so you don't need a meteorology background to understand what it means for your county. The underlying meteorology, risk levels, timing, and warnings all still come directly from the professionals at NOAA and the NWS.
Using AI this way lets a small operation stay current around the clock. It monitors official data streams continuously and turns new information into readable updates within minutes, so the site can keep pace with fast-moving weather without waiting for a person to sit down and rewrite each product by hand.
Metro East Weather is a solo project. AI makes it possible for one person to provide always-current, plain-language coverage of official weather information — but the forecasts, warnings, and outlooks themselves are always the work of the National Weather Service and the Storm Prediction Center.
Data Sources & References
Forecasts, radar, alerts, and other content on this site are built from public data provided by the following sources:
- National Weather Service (NWS) — official forecasts, warnings, watches, and radar imagery
- Storm Prediction Center (SPC) — convective outlooks, Mesoscale Discussions, and severe weather watches
- Convective Outlooks (Day 1, 2, 3, and 4–8) — daily risk levels for severe thunderstorms
- Mesoscale Discussions — focused analysis of developing severe weather
- Severe Thunderstorm & Tornado Watches
- Open-Meteo — global forecast data and point weather information
- Fox Weather, CBS News Weather, ABC News Weather — national weather headlines and stories
The Severe Weather tab is powered by the Storm Prediction Center. SPC outlooks are checked automatically and translated into local blog posts and the risk summary on that page, so the Metro East gets a quick, focused read on the current severe-weather threat without digging through national products.