It’s warm and windy in Kansas City. Here’s the next chance for severe thunderstorms
The work week will get off to a warm, dry and breezy start in Kansas City as temperatures bounce back into the 70s on Monday, according to the National Weather Service.
With winds gusting as high as 30 mph and humidity dropping to 20 to 30%, there is an elevated fire weather concerns for today in the Kansas City area. Any fires that ignite could spread rapidly and be hard to contain.
“Outdoor burning is strongly discouraged except by experienced fire personnel,” the weather service said.
This week’s forecast
The unseasonably warm weather continues on Tuesday, with temperatures soaring to the mid-70s. Normally, temperatures are in the mid-50s this time of year.
The metro will also see its first chance of severe storms on Tuesday evening and night, primarily along and south of the Missouri River.
The weather service’s Storm Prediction Center has placed Kansas City under a marginal risk, 5 to 15%, chance of severe weather. The primary risks are quarter-sized hail and wind gusts up to 60 mph. The overall chance of thunderstorms are 20 to 40%.
The storms are expected to move out of the area, leaving dry weather after midnight early Wednesday.
The chance for thunderstorms and severe weather returns Wednesday afternoon and continues through Thursday. The threat of severe weather is more widespread, with the Kansas City under a marginal risk, 5 to 15%, Wednesday evening and overnight.
The primary risk with the stronger storms are quarter-sized hail and wind gusts up to 60 mph. The overall chances of showers and thunderstorms across the Kansas City area is 60 to 80%.
Is winter over?
Over the weekend, the weather service noted that March 10 is the date of the earliest last freeze for Kansas City, which occurred in 1946 and 2012.
On Sunday, temperatures fell to 26 degrees, so this year won’t break or even tie the record. The average last freeze for Kansas City occurs on April 8.
Meanwhile, it has been warm winter.
“It didn’t matter if you were in Kansas City or anywhere else in the lower 48 states . . . Winter was hard to find,” the weather service said on X, formerly Twitter. “This meteorological Winter (Dec-Feb) was the warmest on record for the contiguous U.S. of the 130-years on record and was 5.4 degrees above normal.”
For Kansas City, this meteorological winter tied for the seventh warmest on record with an average temperature of 36.4 degrees. The warmest winter was in 1931-1932, which saw an average temperature of 39.1 degrees.
This story was originally published March 11, 2024 at 7:44 AM.
