Arctic air to send temperatures tumbling below zero; snow possible in Kansas City
Snow is expected to fall again this weekend in the Kansas City area, but the bigger news is just how much colder the already dangerously cold temperatures will get, according to FOX4 meteorologist Karli Ritter.
“Later on today we’re going to be fighting clouds, we’ll have a few flurries possible and it’s going to stay cold,” said Ritter, who provides weather updates to The Star. “We’ll be about 15 degrees with the wind chill colder than that.”
Temperatures at Kansas City International Airport fell to 9 degrees Thursday morning. The wind chill, however, made it felt more like -9 degrees.
Ritter said that wind chills on Friday morning will be dropping well below zero.
“Frostbite can happen in under 30 minutes with this type of cold,” Ritter said.
Entering into the weekend, snow chances will start ramping up Friday evening into Saturday to the north of the metro and then skirting past the north side of the metro.
“So mainly the north side of I-70 has the best chance for a little bit of snow Saturday morning and then by Saturday afternoon, we’re dealing with some pretty quiet conditions,” she said.
“Sunday looks like it’ll start out very dry, but then we’ll try to introduce more snow to the forecast potentially on Sunday before we see a much colder forecast Sunday night into Monday. And Monday night into Tuesday, another chance to dip back below zero.”
The National Weather Service in Kansas City said the worst of the frigid cold conditions should be Saturday night into Sunday and Sunday night into Monday when wind chills could plunge between -15 and -30 degrees across the entire Kansas City region.
There is good news in that temperatures could rise above freezing toward the end of next week. The last time Kansas City saw above freezing temperatures was on Feb. 5.
The normal high temperature for this time of year in Kansas City 42 degrees with an average low of 23 degrees. The record high for this date was 73 in 1951. The lowest temperature was -19 in 1899, according to the weather service.
BEHIND THE STORY
MOREHow we did this story
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.
This story was originally published February 11, 2021 at 8:33 AM.
