Get ready for a roller coaster ride Kansas City as temperatures are expected to soar to record levels on Monday and Tuesday — and then comes a cold front, according to the National Weather Service.
Temperatures are expected to quickly warm up under mostly sunny skies Monday afternoon, climbing to around 78 degrees. If Kansas City reaches that level, it will be the warmest Feb. 26 on record, breaking a 128-year old record of 76 degrees set in 1896, according to the weather service.
Typically, Kansas City sees temperatures of 49 degrees this time of year. The earliest the metro has seen temperatures at or above 80 degrees was on Feb. 25, 1930, when the temp reached 83 degrees.
Temperatures on Tuesday will be a few degrees cooler, but they are still expected to be record busting. Temps are expected to reach 74 degrees on Tuesday, breaking the record of 73 degrees set in 2016.
This month has been unusually warm and will likely finish as the third warmest February on record in Kansas City, behind February 1930 and February 1954, the weather service said.
Because of well above normal temperatures and low relative humidity and strong gusty winds, parts of the region are under a red flag warning, meaning that any fires that start could spread quickly and be difficult to control. Areas under the warning are to the north and east of Kansas City.
Although Kansas City isn’t under the warning, it is at a risk of elevated fire weather.
Snow, below freezing temps
On Tuesday, a cold front is expected to move through the Kansas City area by mid- to late afternoon, allowing temperatures to reach their record levels.
There’s a “very slight chance” that showers and thunderstorms develop along and ahead of the front along a line from Kirksville to Sedalia. The weather service’s Storm Prediction Center has shifted the risk for severe thunderstorms further east and out of the Kansas City forecast area, according to the weather service’s forecast discussion.
Behind the cold front, temperatures are expected to plunge very quickly as winds turn to northwesterly and remaining gusty.
Temperatures in Kansas City could go from the mid- to upper 70s at 3 p.m. to below freezing by shortly after midnight on Wednesday morning.
“Believe it or not, the chances for snow behind the front have increased for Tuesday night into early Wednesday morning, and a dusting of snow now looks possible,” the weather service said.
Temperatures will be chilly Wednesday morning, ranging from the teens over northwest Missouri to the lower 20s elsewhere. Wind chills will be in the single digits. Temperatures are expected to only climb to around 40 degrees in the afternoon.
Warmer weather is expected later this week as temperatures rebound into the 50s on Thursday, 60s on Friday, 70s on Saturday and near 80 on Sunday.
The chance for showers and thunderstorms return to the area on Sunday night.
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