Northwest Kansas awoke Thursday to a blustery winter day, with blowing snow forcing several schools to either cancel or delay classes.

But Wednesday was quite a different story. According to the K-State Ag Research Center, Hays had a record-setting high temperature on Wednesday, breaking the record of 72 set in 1986 and 1999.

The mercury topped out at 77 degrees Wednesday, and then plunged all the way to 15 degrees overnight.

That low was balmy, however, compared to the record of -22 degrees set in 1918.

According to K-State, just more than a half-inch of snowfall was recorded overnight and into Thursday morning.