Wichita’s never had a winter like this

For the first time since records began being kept in the city’s infancy, Wichita is about to go through a winter where the temperature never touched 60.

That’s never happened, according to National Weather Service temperature records dating back to 1888, 16 years after Wichita was incorporated. The agency’s “meteorological winter” stretches from Dec. 1 to Feb. 28, and the thermometer has reached 60 at least once during that period for the past 122 years.

But not this year.

Wichita came close once, hitting 59 on Jan. 22. But the city hasn’t even hit 50 very often this winter: only 12 times since Dec. 1.

The winters of 1928-29 and 1974-75 were also persistently cold, hitting 60 just once – in December. And the winter of 1992-93 had one 60 degree day – in February.

But most Wichita winters include warm spells that offer residents an interlude from the cold. It’s what makes the season more tolerable, longtime residents will tell you.

This winter hasn’t had a single 60, and the forecast for the rest of February suggests the mercury won’t climb near that in Wichita.

There haven’t been many 50s this winter: 12 out of 85, or less than 15%.

No wonder so many folks are aching for spring.

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  • trickrider

    I’ve studied the climate data of the plains states for many years and have found that there have been large variations in average temperatures over the years for every month of the year, with the winter months having the greatest range. For Wichita a “normal” January has an average temperature for the month (that adds up all high and low temperatures and divides by 31) of roughly 30 degrees. However, there have been years where that average for the month has been as low as 16 or as high as 43. These variations are even greater in areas to the west as you approach the Rocky Mountains. This year is really not very extreme, February is running about 4 degrees below average, nothing even close to the coldest years recorded. As the story points out though, the odd thing about this winter has been the lack of significant warm-ups and that is unusual, even when looking at some of the notoriously cold years in the past. As for climate change, I’m on the fence. Consider 1936 for example. Across the plains states there were more temperature records both high and low that were set that year than anytime since. In many locations, February 1936 was brutally cold, and July 1936 has yet to be matched for its incredible heat although July 1980 was a strong second place. No doubt the climate around these parts has always been subject to wild variations for a long time and that probably won’t change anytime soon. However, when we talk about climate change we do have to look well beyond the borders of Kansas or even the United States and look at the world as a whole. For those of you who are curious about this subject, there is a wealth of climate information for hundreds of recording stations on the website of the High Plains Regional Climate Center. Another good source is the NOAA’s weather.gov/climate pages.

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