Kansas City region breaks cold weather record set in 19th century

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — As the final snowflakes trickle down Wednesday morning over the Kansas City area, and the forecast show signs of warming, the National Weather Service confirms we’ve witnessed history during this deep freeze.

With 12 days to go in a frigid February, the NWS in Kansas City says a record set in 1899 has fallen. There have already been six days where the maximum temperature stayed below 10°, the previous record was five.

The good news is we are done with single digit highs! We did, however, set a record for most single digits highs for the month of February with 6 days breaking the old record of 5 days set in 1899. #RecordBreakingCold #WeAreNumberOne pic.twitter.com/Y8DOA4HgYs
— NWS Kansas City (@NWSKansasCity) February 17, 2021

That’s merely one record in a series that’s been shattered. While last Saturday’s records were out of reach, Sunday shattered records from 1936. Both the record low and coldest high record fell.

As we kicked off the start of the work week, records fell once again on Monday. Both the record low and coldest high temperature were broken!

One thing to note about the subzero high temperature on Monday: This was the first time that we have seen a subzero high since Dec. 22, 1989. That minus 1 high ranked as the 15th-coldest high temperature ever recorded in Kansas City. It also was the latest subzero high temperature we have ever seen in a winter season.

And then there is Tuesday. We blew past the record low of minus 8 from 1979. But the sunshine helped warm temperatures into the double-digits. Finally!

And we are starting to trend warmer heading into the weekend where we look to climb above freezing for the first time since Feb. 5th at 5:25 p.m.

But this has been a very long stretch of cold days here in Kansas City. When we look at previous record cold stretches, this is how this stretch compares:

We have broken the record number of consecutive days with temperatures 15 degrees or less set back in 1983. This stretch will come to an end Wednesday as highs are expected to climb near 20 degrees this afternoon.

As long as temperatures do not warm above 20 degrees, we will tack on one more day to that total, possibly two if temperatures do not warm above 20 degrees on Thursday.

We are predicting temperatures above freezing starting this weekend, bringing the under 32 degrees stretch to an end. We will not reach the record number of 20 days, but I don’t think anyone is going to be too upset about that one!

Hang in there, Kansas City. I know this has been a brutal stretch. Warmer days look to continue into the end of February and start of March.