Is more freezing rain on the way? Here’s the latest Kansas City area forecast
Update: The weather forecast Monday afternoon called for another bout of freezing rain and freezing drizzle in the Kansas City region overnight. That story is posted here.
Freezing rain that turned Kansas City roads, sidewalks and parking lots into sheets of ice early Monday has moved out of the immediate metro area and into central Missouri.
The precipitation left icy and dangerous roads in its wake, prompting the National Weather Service in Kansas City to urge: “Stay home unless absolutely necessary to venture out.”
A glaze to .05 of an inch of ice had coated most surfaces and roads, with the highest amounts over central Missouri, the weather service said.
Shortly before 7 a.m., a light freezing drizzle, fog and mist was reported at Kansas City International Airport. Temperatures were 30 degrees with a wind chill of 19 degrees.
Although freezing rain is expected to come to an end across the region Monday morning, surface temperatures will be slow to warm, the weather service said. Temperatures were expected to reach 36 degrees in the Kansas City area.
Kansas City area weather forecast
A second round of freezing rain will be possible overnight into Tuesday morning across northwestern Missouri, the weather service said. A light glaze of ice will be possible in areas north of U.S. 36 highway in the St. Joseph area. Temperatures will hover near freezing, limiting some of the ice accumulation.
Along and south of Interstate 70, including the Kansas City metro area, temperatures are expected to remain warm enough that any precipitation that falls should remain as light rain, the weather service said in its forecast discussion.
Slightly above-normal temperatures are expected for most of this week in Kansas City, beginning on Tuesday when temperatures will likely be around 40 degrees. Typically, Kansas City sees temperatures reach the upper 30s this time of year.
Average temperatures in the area, record cold
The warmer weather will be a welcome change for the metro, which saw a recent stretch of bitter cold.
“It’s cold and it’s been cold!” the weather service said Saturday on X. “The past week from 1/13 to 1/19 was the coldest week on record for that period. And it wasn’t even that close.”
The average temperature during that period was 4.1 degrees. The previous record was 7 degrees for that period in 1930, followed by 10.4 degrees in 1984.
Typically, the coldest period in Kansas City comes between Jan. 10 and 23, where the normal high temperature is 38 degrees with a low temperature of 19 degrees.
The extended outlook for the Kansas City area indicates that above-normal temperatures are likely along with near-normal precipitation for the end of January into early February, the weather service said.
This story was originally published January 22, 2024 at 7:57 AM.
