As a St.

Louis area meteorologist, there's one myth Steve Templeton hears all the time.

I've been here two decades and I've heard it the whole time I've been here.

Sometimes I hear it from people who are serious and sometimes most of the time I hear it from people who are kind of joking about it.

Templeton is the chief meteorologist at KMOV.

He's talking about the so-called arch effect.

The thinking is people believe that some people believe that the arch can divert storms around the St.

Louis metro so they actually kind of split and then rejoin or that they weaken as they move into the St.

Louis metro but it's just not true.

The myth comes from the idea that many large storms and tornadoes seem to avoid the downtown area near the Gateway Arch.

If storms would weaken and or divert around St.

Louis, especially severe storms, well then we wouldn't have the unfortunate and tragic history we have with tornadoes.

You just look back at last year, we had May 16th but then also on March 14th, we had two on the ground at the same time in the St.

Louis metro, one in Maryland Heights and one in Arnold.

So, that was all just last spring by the way, not to mention Good Friday tornado among many, many others.

Templeton says the location of tornadoes is mostly up to chance.

Downtown's a relatively small area.

Um you know, we we average 17 tornadoes in our whole uh viewing area.

So, if I gave you 17 darts every year to throw at the St.

Louis region, would you hit a city or would you hit farmland?

You'd probably hit land.

To hit to hit a town or specifically downtown St.

Louis, the odds are stacked against you because the city is a relatively small parcel of land compared to where tornadoes are roaming across the Midwest.

And any difference between the weather downtown versus elsewhere has more to do with heat than the arch.

There could be an urban heat island effect, not an arch effect.

Uh but generally, the rivers are pretty small.

There's a localized effect.

If you're near the river, it's going to be more humid.

It can impact our temperatures too, but that's very localized to the rivers.

The big, big impact that impacts severe weather around here is the fact that we get our humidity from the Gulf of Mexico.

And when that humidity ramps up through the Mississippi Delta and up into our area, that sets up the storm fuel.

It's one of the ingredients, but it sets up the storm fuel for severe weather.

The other thing is the arch.

Its effect is kind of laughable on a 60,000-foot-tall severe thunderstorm.

Now, don't get me wrong.

The arch is tall, 630 feet, but you would have to stack 100 arches on top of each other to get to the top of a severe thunderstorm.

So the sheer scale of a severe thunderstorm is huge compared to the relative small scale of the arch.

But Templeton doesn't see any harm in the myth.

I think it's fun.

Whether it's something that brings us together, it's something we can all bond about and sometimes joking about it can just be kind of a good humored way to feel part of a community.