….was 1904.
Theodore Roosevelt was president, Willis Bailey was the governor of Kansas and a team from Pennsylvania – Pittsburgh – made it to the first-ever World Series the previous fall.
Meanwhile, in Wichita, the thermometer reached 74 degrees.
Five score and five years later, Wichita reached 74 again. Barack Obama is president, Kathleen Sebelius is governor, and a team from Pennsylvania – Philadelphia – won the World Series the previous fall.
At least Russia and Japan didn’t go to war this time.
Several spots around the state could set new records for high temperature today, as an unseasonably warm period reaches its zenith.
The record for Feb. 6 in Wichita is 74, set in 1904. Today’s forecast calls for a high in the low 70s, and forecasters aren’t ruling out the possibility of a new mark.
But National Weather Service meteorologist Leon Wasinger said he’s not optimistic the 105-year-old record will fall today. Blame the strong winds, he said.
“There’s an awful lot of mixing going on,” he said, referring to how much the wind is stirring the air. That tends to equalize temperatures, pulling them down. Quieter breezes would allow the air to simmer and build up more heat.
Saturday will be warm, too, with highs in the 60s…but forecasters aren’t expecting the record of 69 – set in 1926 – to tumble.