‘Unusual occurrence’: Wichita broke multiple weather records in this week’s winter storm
Wichita’s latest winter storm has broken five weather records this week. Three of the records go back more than 100 years, according to National Weather Service archives that date to 1888.
“This is actually a pretty unusual air mass this time of year, and a lot of these records go back a long way,” NWS Wichita meteorologist Robb Lawson said. “Any time we’re breaking records, it’s going to be an unusual occurrence.”
One record was broken Tuesday, and two each on Wednesday and Thursday.
Feb. 18
On Tuesday, Wichita broke an 87-year-old record for the coolest high of 13 degrees, beating out the previous record of 17 set in 1938.
Feb. 19
Wednesday saw a record low temperature of zero degrees, breaking the previous record of 2 degrees set in 1975.
That same day also saw a record for coolest high of 8, which beat the previous record of 20 set in 1889, 136 years ago.
Feb. 20
Thursday morning broke a record low temperature when it got down to minus 8 degrees. The previous record was 3 degrees set in 1918, 107 years ago.
Thursday evening saw the coolest high temperature of 13 degrees, which also set a record. The previous was at 15 degrees set in 1918, meteorologist James Cuellar said.
Significant warm up coming
Friday is forecast for a high near 22 and a low of 11. That day could also see a slight chance of snow flurries between 10 and 11 a.m., a detailed NWS forecast shows.
Saturday and Sunday’s high are forecast at a sunny 38 and 50, with lows of 25 and 34, respectively.
Next week is going to be even warmer, with Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday looking at sunny highs of 59, 61 and 59, the NWS said.
This story was originally published February 20, 2025 at 2:21 PM.