Weather History

This Day In Weather History

In 2021, today marked the end of a brutal 15 day stretch of below normal temperatures.  14 of those days, the mercury never rose above freezing.  This extreme cold weather cause more than 190 billion in property damage and caused the loss of over 20 fatalities during this same period across the Great Plains.  The cold weather was truly the coldest event in more than 30 years as 469 record cold temperatures fell east of the Rockies to the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico.  Of these records, 47% or 225 of them had stood for at least 75 years while 26% or 126 of these records had stood for at least 100 years.

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In 2013, the second day of a huge 2-day snowstorm continued across Kansas. Most of Central and South Central Kansas received 10 to 14 inches, but parts of Kingman County received 1.5 feet. An additional 8 inches were measured at Wichita's Mid Continent Airport. With 6.2 inches measured on the 20th, this brought the storm total to 14.2 inches, making this the 2nd worst snowstorm in Wichita's history. No doubt, travel was treacherous; so much in fact, that several emergency response teams were stuck responding to calls. Wichita's worst snowstorm occurred January 17th and 18th, 1962, when an even 15 inches were measured at Mid-Continent Airport.

In 1971, a blizzard struck the southern half of Kansas, burying these areas with 10 to 13 inches. Northeast 30 to 40 mph winds produced near zero visibilities. Wichita Mid-Continent Airport received 11.6 inches. This ranks February 21st, 1971 4th on the all-time greatest snowfalls list to occur on a calendar day. With another 1.2 inches measured early in the morning of the 22nd, this brought the snowstorm total to 12.8 inches. This placed the Blizzard of February 21st and 22nd, 1971 in a tie with the December 23rd and 24th, 1918 snowstorm as the 4th worst snowstorms to hit the Air Capital.
This Day in Weather History Archive