When the temperature dipped to 24 degrees below zero at Iola’s water plant between 5 and 6 o’clock this morning, it was the coldest temperature ever recorded here.
Register weather records dating to 1900 show the previous low was minus-20 degrees on Jan. 30, 1949.
Temperatures and moisture amounts are logged at Iola’s water plant on automated equipment and are forwarded to the National Weather Service.
“The temperature is measured by a sensor east of the building, between it and the little lagoon,” said Toby Ross, water treatment supervisor. The water plant is near the Neosho River west of town.
“I was surprised by it and called Humboldt to see what they had,” Ross added. “They had 18.5 below zero there, and that’s in town. We always seem to be a little colder out here by the river away from everything.”
Temperatures are forecast to climb well into the 20s today, with highs in the 50s and maybe low 60s by the weekend.
As they say, if you don’t like the weather in Kansas, wait a day or two.
Today is Iola’s coldest â ever
