Extreme Cold/Wind Chill — Linn, Kansas

2021-02-14 · Linn, Kansas

Event narrative

In the first night of bitter cold across the area, temperatures dropped well below zero and with winds around 10-20 mph wind chills overnight going into Sunday morning dropped to around 20 to 30 below.

Wider weather episode

On February 5, a cold air mass settled into the center part of the country, which caused temperatures to go below freezing. They would not return to the freezing/melting point until several weeks later. The worst of the cold snap occurred between February 14 through February 16. Aside from the cold air arrival, several inches of snow fell, which allowed the already historically cold airmass to hold together. Minimum temperatures on Monday the 15th and and Tuesday the 16th reached negative double digits, and daytime highs across the area failed to reach zero degrees. In Kansas City, this marked the first time for a negative high temperature since a previous historic cold air outbreak in December of 1989. Even more rare was the 10-20 mph wind that accompanied the cold airmass, which caused wind chills each day to approach the 20 to 30 degree below zero mark.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 933401. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.