extremes of hot and cold swings in temperature all year long. The warmest
month of the year is July, with a 24-hour average temperature of 81.0 °F
(27.2 °C). The summer months are warm but can get hot and moderately
humid, with moist air riding up from the Gulf of Mexico, and high temperatures
surpass 100 °F (38 °C) on 4 days of the year, and 90 °F
(32 °C) on nearly 40 days. Fall is characterized by mild days and cool
nights. The coldest month of the year is January, with an average temperature
of 31.0 °F (−0.6 °C). Winters are cold, with 22 days where the high
is at or below the freezing mark and 2.6 nights with a low below 0 °F
(−18 °C). The record high temperature here is 113 °F (45 °C),
set on August 14, 1936, and the record low is −22 °F (−30 °C), set on
February 12, 1899. Annual average snowfall is 19.9 inches (51 cm). The
first freezing temperature tends to occur around October 31, with the last
around April 4, according to weather.com the average first snowfall occurs on
November 27, and the first 1 inch (2.5 cm) or greater snowfall occurring
around early December. Precipitation, both in frequency and total accumulation,
shows a marked uptick in late spring and summer.
Kansas City is situated on the edge of the
"Tornado Alley", a broad region where cold air from the Rocky
Mountains in Canada collides with warm air from the Gulf of Mexico, leading to
the formation of powerful storms especially during the spring. A few areas of
the Kansas City Metropolitan Area have had some severe outbreaks of tornadoes
at different points in the past, including the Ruskin Heights tornado in 1957,
and the May 2003 tornado outbreak sequence. The region can also fall victim to
the sporadic ice storm during the winter months, such as the 2002 ice storm
during which hundreds of thousands lost power for
