Climate averages 1991–2020
Kansas City weather
in May.
A warm, wet month: the 5th warmest and the wettest of the year.
Long-term climate patterns, not a forecast for a particular trip.
May is a warm month in Kansas City: daytime highs average 23.3°C and nights cool to about 13.6°C. By daytime temperature it is the 5th warmest of the 12 months.
Expect about 143 mm of rain on roughly 13 days, which makes May a wet month (the wettest month of the year). Daylight, from sunrise to sunset, lasts about 14 h 17 min on an average May day.
The nearest other city in this atlas is Independence (14 km away). In May its highs average 22.9°C, about as warm as Kansas City, with 143 mm of rain.
Among the 498 cities listed in the United States, Kansas City ranks 258th of 498 for the warmest May highs and joint 487th of 498 for the driest May (rainfall, lowest first). The mean May high of those 498 cities is 23.8°C; Kansas City is 0.5°C cooler than that mean.
From May to June, average highs rise by 5.3°C to 28.6°C, and monthly rainfall falls from 143 mm to 124 mm.
The annual picture
May in context
Monthly rainfall
Average total · mmAverages from hourly ERA5 reanalysis data. Actual weather varies from year to year. How these numbers are calculated
Every month, side by side
Kansas City climate table
| Month | Average highHigh / low | Average low | Rainfall mm/month | Rain days ≥1 mm/day | Daylight hours/dayDaylight h/day |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 3.2°C-5.7°C | -5.7°C | 37 | 5.9 | 9.810 h |
| February | 6.1°C-3.6°C | -3.6°C | 50 | 6.1 | 10.711 h |
| March | 12.2°C1.8°C | 1.8°C | 78 | 9.3 | 11.912 h |
| April | 17.9°C7.6°C | 7.6°C | 124 | 11.2 | 13.213 h |
| May, selected | 23.3°C13.6°C | 13.6°C | 143 | 12.9 | 14.314 h |
| June | 28.6°C19.1°C | 19.1°C | 124 | 11.7 | 14.915 h |
| July | 31.0°C21.7°C | 21.7°C | 94 | 9.3 | 14.615 h |
| August | 30.2°C20.8°C | 20.8°C | 94 | 9.0 | 13.714 h |
| September | 25.6°C16.2°C | 16.2°C | 93 | 8.1 | 12.512 h |
| October | 18.7°C9.6°C | 9.6°C | 85 | 8.1 | 11.211 h |
| November | 11.3°C2.8°C | 2.8°C | 61 | 6.7 | 10.110 h |
| December | 5.2°C-3.0°C | -3.0°C | 46 | 5.8 | 9.59 h |
Rainfall is the average of the 30 separate monthly totals. A rain day is a local calendar day with at least 1 mm of precipitation. Daylight is the calculated sunrise-to-sunset length, not measured sunshine.
Compare places
May in nearby cities
- Independence in MayUnited States · 14 kmHigh 22.9°C · Low 13.6°C · 143 mm rain
- Overland Park in MayUnited States · 15 kmHigh 23.1°C · Low 13.8°C · 144 mm rain
- Lee's Summit in MayUnited States · 27 kmHigh 23.1°C · Low 13.7°C · 143 mm rain
- Olathe in MayUnited States · 32 kmHigh 23.2°C · Low 13.8°C · 144 mm rain
- Lawrence (Kansas), United States in MayUnited States · 58 kmHigh 23.5°C · Low 14.0°C · 151 mm rain
- Saint Joseph in MayUnited States · 78 kmHigh 22.8°C · Low 13.2°C · 143 mm rain
- Topeka in MayUnited States · 95 kmHigh 23.5°C · Low 13.8°C · 144 mm rain
- Columbia (Missouri), United States in MayUnited States · 195 kmHigh 23.7°C · Low 14.0°C · 134 mm rain
Read the numbers correctly
Climate, not a promise.
These patterns help compare months. They cannot tell you the weather on a specific day of your trip.
Sources, method and limitsHow these numbers are made (what the highs, lows and rain days mean, the sources and the model cell used for Kansas City) is explained once on the Kansas City year overview and on the Sources, method and limits page.
Independence and Lee's Summit lie in the same rainfall cell, so their rainfall figures are identical to these; temperatures differ because they come from smaller 0.1° cells.