Kansas City’s next winter storm is brewing; 50-degree weather likely next week
The Kansas City area will try to distance itself from the prolonged bitterly cold conditions that has seized the metro for nearly two weeks as temps will climb into the mid-20s Thursday, according to FOX4 meteorologist Karli Ritter.
But the metro’s next winter storm is brewing and could bring rain or snow by the end of the weekend, she said.
The dangerously cold conditions, however, were still hanging on as temperatures dropped to 7 degrees Thursday morning. Overnight wind chills fell below zero at Kansas City International Airport.
“Later on today, we’re going to be back up in the 20s,” said Ritter, who provides weather updates to The Star. “In fact, we’ll be in the middle 20s with a mixture of clouds and sunshine expected and we stay quiet for the rest of the week.”
The warm up will be welcomed by the Kansas City area which set a record for the number of consecutive days in February with high temperatures in the single digits at 6. That broke the old record of 5 days set in 1899, according to the National Weather Service in Kansas City.
The last time Kansas City was above freezing was on Feb. 5. There’s a chance temperatures will climb above freezing on Friday. If not, they will on Saturday, according to the weather service.
Kansas City’s next storm, however, will arrive for the second half of the weekend.
“Heading into Sunday, some of our models are a little bit more aggressive with the evolution of our next storm system,” Ritter said. “There’s a chance for some rain or some snow and it is going to stay a little bit warmer with highs in the 30s heading into Sunday.”
After that, the metro will see ample sunshine. Temperatures will soar into the 40s and even the 50s on Tuesday and Wednesday. The average high for this time of year in Kansas City is the low 40s, Ritter said.
“We’re making progress in the right direction,” she said.
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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.
