January 2025 Extreme Cold

Overview

An extremely cold Arctic airmass spilled south across the Plains starting around January 18th and continued for several days. What made this airmass unique was how far south it made it. It was so cold that many locations across the Gulf Coast received snow, including, Galveston, New Orleans and parts of Florida.

On the morning of January 21st, most locations across Kansas saw temperatures below 0, with Salina reporting -13 and Wichita -9. This resulted in wind chills in the -15 to -25 range. This was the coldest January temperature in Wichita since 1988.

Photos & Video

Photos & Video


Map showing wide spread cold air headlines along with rare winter storm warnings along the Gulf Coast	Low temperature records on Jan 21st	A look at wind chills on the morning of January 21st.


Departure from normal average temps during the cold outbreak.	Loop of MSLP during the cold outbreak.

Additional info:

*Wichita recorded a low temp of -9 degrees on January 21st. This is the coldest January temp since 1988 for Wichita.

*Salina recorded a low temp of -13 degrees on January 21st. This is the coldest January temp in Salina since 1985.

*Wichita recorded 21 straight days of a trace or more of snow on the ground in January 2025. This was the most consecutive days with a trace or more of snow on the ground since Dec 2000 - Jan 2001, when Wichita had 24 straight days.

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