Just how cold was Monday night?
National Weather Service Warning Coordination Meteorologist Chad Omitt says the -14 recorded at the Emporia Municipal Airport, the official NWS reporting site for the city, smashed the previous record of -5 for the date set back in 1979. Emporia’s Water Treatment Plant, meanwhile, recorded -17 for its overnight low.
National Weather Service records at the Municipal Airport date back to 1950. Those show Emporia’s coldest temperature as -16 in January 1959, although there is missing data between 1981-1996.
Calvin Lambert kept Emporia’s weather records for the years 1881-1961. Based on those statistics, Emporia’s record low temperature was -24 on Jan. 4, 1947.
Monday night’s low followed an overnight low of -10 at the airport Sunday night. Sunday night’s wind chills were lower than Monday night’s, but not by much: Sunday’s wind chill bottomed out at -33, while Monday night’s low wind chill was -27.
