Weekend storm threatens Kansas City with up to 6 inches of snow; extreme cold follows
Winter just won’t leave the Kansas City area alone.
Another weekend winter storm will likely dump up to 6 inches of snow Saturday evening into Sunday morning.
The snow will be followed by extreme cold with wind chills falling between -25 degrees and -15 degrees Monday morning, according to the National Weather Service in Pleasant Hill.
The snow is expected to arrive in the Kansas City area Saturday evening and last 12 to 18 hours. The snow is expected to accumulate rapidly.
The highest snowfall totals are expected to be in an area that parallels the Interstate 70 corridor, which could have significant impact on travel, according to the weather service.
Before the weekend storm, Kansas City will be colder than usual. The normal high for this time of year is 50 degrees, according to the weather service.
Instead, Kansas City will be in the 20s and 30s Thursday, Friday and Saturday, with lows in the teens to 20 degrees. Those temperatures are more like what Fargo, North Dakota, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Green Bay, Wisconsin, see this time of year, according to the weather service.
When the winter storm strikes, temperatures will plummet and be accompanied by extremely cold wind chills.
On Sunday, temperatures will be in the low teens. On Monday temperatures will dip below zero and than only climb back to the mid teens. Those temperatures are what Nome and Fairbanks, Alaska, see this time of year, according to the weather service.
Below-zero temperatures are rare for Kansas City in March — it has happened only 8 times in 131 years. The last time temperatures dipped below zero in March was on March 3, 2014, when they hit -7 degrees, the second coldest March morning on record.
Wind chills late Sunday night and early Monday morning are expected to be -15 degrees in the Kansas City metro area and -25 degrees across northern Missouri.
The cold temperatures are expected to remain in the area through early next week.
This story was originally published February 28, 2019 at 8:32 AM.
