Kansas · 398 m elevation

Barometric Pressure in Wichita, KS

• 30.01Average pressure (inHg, sea level)
• 222.7Swing days a year · 12th of 50
• 128.4Big-swing days a year (≥10 hPa)
• 129.8Significant 24h drop days a year

Overview

Wichita averages 222.7 significant pressure swing days a year — #12 of 50 US cities — with February swings nearly 3x July's. Records and seasonal data.

Wichita sits at 398 meters on the southern Great Plains, and its barometer reflects a position squarely under the cold-season storm track. Sea-level pressure averaged 30.01 inHg (1016.4 hPa) over the 2015–2024 record, with a median of 29.99 inHg (1015.7 hPa). Ninety percent of hours fell between 29.65 inHg (1004.2 hPa) and 30.44 inHg (1030.7 hPa) — a wide working range that puts Wichita's standard deviation of 0.24 inHg (7.96 hPa) at #7 of the 50 cities analyzed, above the national median of 6.87 hPa.

The elevation matters for anyone reading a barometer at home. Station pressure in Wichita averages 28.63 inHg (969.6 hPa), about 1.38 inHg (46.8 hPa) below the sea-level-corrected value that airports and forecast products report. An uncorrected instrument sitting near 28.63 inHg is not broken; it is measuring the actual weight of air above 398 meters. What matters for tracking weather is the change, not the absolute reading.

Nationally, Wichita is a genuinely volatile city, but volatile in a particular way. It logs 222.7 significant swing days per year — days with a 24-hour change of at least 0.18 inHg (6 hPa) — ranking #12 of 50 and running 1.23 times the national median of 180.7. Big-swing days, at 0.30 inHg (10 hPa) or more, come 128.4 times a year, ranking #11 and 1.49 times the median. Yet its largest single 24-hour drop, 0.95 inHg (32.3 hPa), ranks only #24. Wichita's pressure record is wide and busy rather than punctuated by the extreme individual collapses that show up in Boston (-51.5 hPa) or New York (-47.6 hPa). The volatility here is repetitive, not spectacular.

Migraine & pressure-sensitivity outlook

• Low — under 6 hPa (0.18 inHg)
• Elevated — 6 to 10 hPa
• High — 10 hPa (0.30 inHg) or more
• Dashed outline = forecast (after today)

Association only. This calendar shows days when pressure changed — or is forecast to change — sharply over 24 hours, conditions associated with pressure sensitivity in some people. It is not a prediction of symptoms, not a diagnosis, and not medical advice. The 30 days of history are there so you can compare the days you actually felt something against what the barometer did. Talk to a clinician about headache or migraine management.

For people who track barometric pressure alongside their symptoms, Wichita's defining feature is frequency rather than severity. A significant swing — 0.18 inHg (6 hPa) or more in 24 hours — occurs on 222.7 days a year, and a big swing of 0.30 inHg (10 hPa) or more on 128.4 days. Of those, 129.8 are drop days, meaning a significant 24-hour fall. The typical day sees an absolute 24-hour change of 0.12 inHg (3.9 hPa), but the 95th percentile reaches 0.47 inHg (15.8 hPa), and six-hour moves routinely span -0.14 to 0.15 inHg (-4.9 to 5.1 hPa). These are conditions many pressure-sensitive people report as triggers.

The seasonal contrast is stark enough to plan around. January averages 17.1 drop days, February 16.7, December 16.2, March 15.9 — better than one significant fall every other day through the heart of winter. July averages 1.3 drop days and August 2.4. If pressure changes are among the patterns you track, December through March is where Wichita concentrates them, and the July–August window is the quietest stretch on the local calendar by a wide margin.

In national terms, Wichita runs 1.23 times the median city's swing days and 1.49 times its big-swing days. Compared with Dallas, roughly 400 miles south in the same air-mass corridor, Wichita logs 1.44 times the swing days and 1.83 times the big-swing days; against Oklahoma City and Tulsa the margins are 1.14x and 1.17x. It reaches about 79 percent of the swing-day count in Denver, the most volatile city in the survey at 281.6. At the far end, Miami sees 19.8 swing days and 3.2 big-swing days a year, so Wichita experiences roughly 11 times the swings and 40 times the big swings. Its closest statistical twin is Baltimore, nearly identical at 222.3 swing days, though Wichita logs more big-swing days — 128.4 to Baltimore's 117.9.

Seasonal patterns

Wichita effectively runs two pressure climates on one calendar. February is the most turbulent month, with a monthly standard deviation of 0.29 inHg (9.95 hPa) — 2.8 times July's 0.10 inHg (3.53 hPa). January and March each average 26.4 significant swing days, December 26.0, February 24.9. July averages 5.1 and August 6.2. In the cold season nearly every day moves the needle; in midsummer most days barely do.

The driver is the storm track. From November through March, lee cyclones forming east of the Rockies track across Kansas and are followed by Arctic high-pressure surges dropping down the plains, producing a steady alternation of deep lows and strong highs. Monthly mean pressure runs highest in January at 30.16 inHg (1021.4 hPa) and December at 30.11 inHg (1019.5 hPa), then falls to a June minimum of 29.89 inHg (1012.2 hPa) as the track lifts north and warm, homogeneous Gulf-modified air settles over the region. The transition is abrupt on both ends: September averages 10.3 swing days, October jumps to 23.7.

The extremes cluster in winter. All five of the sharpest 24-hour drops on record fell between December and March: 0.95 inHg (32.3 hPa) ending January 8, 2015; 0.93 inHg (31.4 hPa) ending February 27, 2023; 0.87 inHg (29.5 hPa) ending January 10, 2017; 0.86 inHg (29.2 hPa) ending December 16, 2016; and 0.84 inHg (28.5 hPa) ending March 13, 2019. The first is the signature sequence in the whole record — Wichita's all-time high of 31.17 inHg (1055.6 hPa) was set at midday on January 7, 2015, and the largest drop in ten years ended roughly 29 hours later as that Arctic high collapsed. The record low, 29.05 inHg (983.6 hPa), came at 7 p.m. on March 13, 2019, immediately after the 0.84 inHg (28.5 hPa) fall recorded that morning. Worth noting: the largest 24-hour rise, 1.15 inHg (38.8 hPa), exceeds the largest drop. High-pressure build-ins here arrive as violently as the lows depart.

Month by month

Swing days: 24-hour change of at least 6 hPa (0.18 inHg). Drop days: 24-hour fall of at least 6 hPa. Averages per year, 2015–2024.

Records and extremes

Sharpest 24-hour drops, 2015–2024

Nearby cities

• Tulsa, OK
• Oklahoma City, OK
• Kansas City, MO
• Omaha, NE
• Dallas, TX
• Fort Worth, TX

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