An Unusual Weather Turn Even for the Midwest: 8 Degrees Quickly Becomes 74

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — T. J. Abogado huffed and puffed, his buzz cut and face sprinkled with sweat. He was wearing short navy blue shorts, but his red T-shirt was now in his hand.

Ed Zurga for The New York Times

Catherine Pajor studying outside the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art on Monday in Kansas City, Mo., where the high was 74.

“It got too hot,” Mr. Abogado, 27, said on Monday afternoon after jogging a few miles on a sunny day that felt a lot more like June than January.

Was this athletic dedication on display last week?

“No, not at all,” he said. “I was in the house hibernating.”

Last week the temperature here dropped to 8 degrees, a low for the month. On Monday, the mercury topped out at 74, breaking a 96-year-old record high for the date.

“It’s like, ‘Jesus, thank you for this wonderful weather,’ ” Larry Newell, 58, said as he sat shirtless on a swiveling exercise chair in a park.

Winter around here has had all the ups and downs of a choppy ocean.

One day, the air coming from people’s shivering nostrils is visible as they shimmy through the streets (or, perhaps more aptly, race from their cars to the nearest building) in puffy down coats. The next day, as was the case on Monday, they shed layers, don tank tops and short shorts, and kick back at restaurant patios to let the sun soak their faces. The temperature changes have been so sudden and extreme that even weather nerds could get caught in the sun with a few too many layers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/29/us/temperature-swings-not-uncommon-in-kansas-city-missouri.html?_r=0