Dozens of Kansas City area schools close as wind chills drop to dangerous levels
Dozens of school districts across the Kansas City area canceled classes Thursday after an Arctic blast sent temperatures tumbling overnight to dangerously cold levels.
“We are starting out with wind chills well below zero,” said FOX4 meteorologist Karli Ritter, who provides weather updates to The Star. “A wind chill advisory will continue through noon today.”
At 6 a.m. Thursday, the temperature was 4 degrees with a wind chill of -17 degrees at Kansas City International Airport, the official weather reporting station for the metro.
The National Weather Service in Pleasant Hill tweeted out other wind chill values that showed much of the metro was in a deep freeze.
“Right now, temps are in the negative single digits to teens with wind chills between -25 deg to -5 deg.,” the weather service said in an earlier tweet. “#Frostbite can set in in less than 30 min. So, don’t take any chances, make sure you are properly bundled up.”
Because of dangerously cold weather, some school districts canceled classes for Thursday. The Star will be updating a list of closures throughout Thursday morning.
Nearly 6,000 Evergy Inc. customers were without power in Overland Park and Olathe on Kansas City’s coldest day of the winter season so far, according to the company’s power outage website.
Drivers headed out for their morning commute were urged to use caution because of the possibility of any lingering moisture on the roads flash freezing overnight.
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The Star produced this weather update in partnership with the local FOX4 television station. The station’s meteorologists create forecast videos multiple times a day for the newspaper to include in its weather reports.
Despite the sunshine Thursday, Kansas City is expected to reach only the mid-teens for its high temperature.
“It is not going to warm up much at all,” Ritter said. “Our wind chills are going to stay at best in the teens, if not single digits throughout the afternoon.”
It will also be another cold night because of the snow that’s on the ground and the cold air that’s entrenched across the middle part of the nation, Ritter said.
“We’ll wake up to single digits again tomorrow but your Valentine’s Day forecast will take up to 28 degrees,” she said. “The really nice weather arrives at the end of the weekend and early next week.”
This story was originally published February 13, 2020 at 6:39 AM.
