Missouri’s past is peppered with deep freezes that would make even Truman the Tiger reach for a wool scarf. In a strange twist of geographic irony, the state’s coldest day on record occurred in the same town that holds the record for the hottest: Warsaw. If you’ve ever wondered whether Missouri winters used to be more formidable, you don’t have to take our word for it—just let the history books be your guide.
The “gold standard” for cold in Missouri occurred on February 13, 1905. In the town of Warsaw, the mercury plummeted to a bone-chilling -40°F. Interestingly, Warsaw also holds the state record for the hottest temperature (118°F), proving that the town is the capital of Missouri’s climate extremes.
Southwest Missouri is typically warmer than the rest of the state. But one February morning in 1899, Springfield was the coldest place in the state. It is also believed that this was the record for the coldest temperature in Missouri history prior to the Warsaw record a few years later.
Columbia is one of the coldest places I’ve ever called home. If you haven’t experienced a mid-Missouri winter, it’s hard to describe the way those bone-chilling winds whip across the plains. The record for the area was set back on February 12, 1899, when the mercury plummeted to -26°F. That record wasn’t just a fluke, either. This cold was part of a brutal, eight-day arctic blast where temperatures dropped to at least -20°F.
The coldest day in Kansas City was in 1989. The temperatures hit reached a low of -23°F twice. It happened first on December 22nd, and then again the following day on December 23rd.
St. Louis has seen some legendary deep freezes. The all-time record was set way back on January 4, 1884, when the mercury plummeted to -22°F. More recently, the “Great Freeze” of Christmas 1989 left a lasting mark: temperatures bottomed out around -20°F with wind chills hitting a brutal -37°F. That year, the city endured a bone-chilling 51 consecutive hours of sub-zero temperatures.
Note: According to the National Weather Service, some unverified weather stations in 1884 recorded temps of -26°F.
The state-wide average temperature was only 24.1°F.
The coldest single month in state history with an average temperature of just 15.3°F.
It’s called “The Great Blue Norther”.
On November 11, 1911, residents of Springfield experienced a weather event so surreal it remains unmatched in the record books. The afternoon began with unseasonable, record-breaking warmth as the mercury climbed to a balmy 80°F. But the air turned volatile as a massive arctic blast tore through the state. By midnight, the temperature had plummeted a staggering 67 degrees to a frigid 13°F. To this day, it stands as the only date in Missouri history where the record high and record low were set within a 24 hour period.
And there you have it, the coldest days in Missouri History!
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