Overview
- The National Weather Service confirmed Kansas City reached 92 degrees on March 21 at Kansas City International Airport, the city's hottest temperature ever recorded in March.
- One day earlier, Kansas City hit 90 degrees on March 20, the earliest 90-degree reading in records that date back to at least 1888.
- Friday's 90-degree high shattered the previous March 20 daily record of 82 degrees set in 1953, and surpassed the prior earliest 90-degree occurrence of March 21, 1907.
- The same heat wave produced all-time March records across Kansas on March 21, including 95 in Topeka, 97 in Salina, and 93 in Wichita, according to National Weather Service reports.
- Meteorologists attributed the surge to a strong ridge of high pressure, or heat dome, that parked over the Plains and trapped summer-like air over the region.