….was recorded on this date – Feb. 12 – in 1899, according to National Weather Service records.
The temperature fell to -22 on this date 110 years ago.
As the storm system that brought snow, sleet and freezing drizzle to most of the state departs, skies will gradually clear – and that will permit temperatures to plummet. Winds will ease into the single digits, forecasters say, but that will still push overnight wind chills well below 0 for much of the Wichita metropolitan area as well as most of central and northern Kansas.
Meanwhile, areas south and east of Wichita figure to remain icy through the overnight hours, so authorities are urging drivers to exercise caution during any travel they undertake.
….that twice in two days vandals have egged houses in the city — and the remnants have frozen to the surfaces they struck. The homeowners couldn’t even clean up the mess that was left behind, police reported.
At least they won’t have to wait very long for the clean-up: temperatures should reach the 40s within a day or two.
A wind chill advisory is in effect until 11 a.m. today.
What the Wichita branch of the National Weather Service calls “the coldest air of the season” is parked over the region this morning.
Wind chills of -5 are expected, as northwest winds gust into the mid-teens. Frostbite and hypothermia can be expected if precautions are not taken, officials warn.
Make sure to wear hats and gloves if you venture outside.
……for the Wichita area.
Light snow is likely in central and south-central Kansas this afternoon, and some areas could pick up another half-inch of snow. The National Weather Service reports that the best chance of snow will be east of a Great Bend to Wichita to Winfield line.
Wind chills as low as -10 are expected across much of the area late tonight.
They’re used to cold weather in January in North Dakota – but not this cold.
Grand Forks fell to a record low of -37 today. That’s six degrees below the previous record set 30 years ago. Temperatures fell to -36 in northern Minnesota as an arctic front pummeled the northern Plains.
Wichita will see temperatures plunge to single digits Wednesday and Thursday nights, with wind chills as low as -15 on both nights.
Stay tuned for updates…it’s going to get awfully cold out there.
…….because there’s a sharp plunge in temperatures coming Saturday, forecasters warn. These unusually warm 50s today and Friday will make way for temperatures a hearty 20 degrees colder on Saturday.
A cold front is bringing harsh winds and much colder temperatures this weekend, forecasters say. That’s hardly a surprise, considering it’s early January.
As a co-worker said this morning, though, days like today give her a case of spring fever. Already. In January.
I guess that just means Saturday will be even harder to take. Sunday will be something of a tease, with a high back around 50, but then next week will see temperatures dive back into the 30s for highs.
We don’t need a groundhog to remind us winter’s here for quite a while yet.
The mention of “freezing fog” in recent local forecasts has more than a few folks scratching their heads, because they’ve never heard of fog freezing before.
But it happens – particularly on mountaintops exposed to low clouds. Freezing fog occurs when liquid fog droplets freeze to surfaces, forming what is called “white rime ice.”
Not rhyme ice. Rime ice…which according to the Web site MiMi.hu is “an opaque coating of tiny, white, granular ice particles” that form when water strikes a surface well below 32F and rapidly freezes.
Black ice, by contrast, is a thin – almost invisible – layer of ice formed when rain falls on a surface that is below freezing. It is especially dangerous, because it is difficult to detect…until you’ve lost your footing or your car is gliding somewhere out of control.
The National Weather Service has created a snowfall accumulation map to answer that question. The heaviest snowfall didn’t miss Wichita by all that much.
That heavier snowfall up north helps explain why the low temperatures dropped below 0 last night between Hays and Salina.
A look at the Kansas Department of Transportation’s map of road conditions shows that most major thoroughfares in the state are mostly or completely snowpacked this morning.
That translates into travel challenges.
Forecasts show that there won’t be much opportunity at all for melting before freezing rain arrives Thursday morning to glaze southern and central sectors of Kansas.
This winter’s starting to resemble last year’s version, when wintry precipitation cloaked Wichita and the surrounding area every few days. That got old pretty fast for folks who had become accustomed to the milder winters of the previous decade.
Perhaps those were merely aberrations, instead of a “new normal.”
Hunker down: winter’s not even officially here until next Monday.