KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City area looked less like winter Monday than in the last couple of weeks. The snow is nearly gone, along with ice on the roads that made travel treacherous.
Businesses like Broadway Cafe see how the warmer weather is heating up sales.
"Everyone's just trying to get their sunshine," Emma Bell, a barista at the cafe, said.
Kansas Citians welcomed a warm up of more than 60 degrees after bone-chilling cold last week.
Bell said warmer weather brings an energy shift in the metro.
"There's a lot more traffic in and out [of the cafe], people are sitting outside, walking around, riding their bikes," she said. "It's a just a different, more alive vibe compared to three, four days ago. It's been completely different."
The sunshine brought out first-time cafe customer, Jennifer Dumps, to meet up with her friend.
"My seasonal depression isn't getting the best of me anymore," Dumps said. "I needed today. I needed this nice weather."
Dumps said unplowed roads made it difficult to leave her apartment complex.
"I didn't believe everyone when they said the Midwest is brutally cold until I moved here and experienced my first winter," Dumps said. "This weekend, I walked my dog when I got off work and it was really nice to not be slipping and sliding on ice."
Warmer weather is also helping out another local businesses, The Bunker.
"Quarter one is generally pretty slow because you're coming right out of Christmas, but with the snowstorms, it totally dragged down business because the roads were closed and then they were iced over," Senior Buyer Cecilia Nord said.
As the sun came out, so did dozens of customers.
"We were quite busy on Sunday" Nord said. "We had a flood of people in here from the minute we opened the doors until we closed. "I had 30 people in here five minutes before we closed Sunday night. It definitely helped out a lot in sales."
Restaurants in the city, like Rye Plaza, are getting ready for the spring rush, too.
"When it's warm, you have to plan for more people getting out and expect to do more business, even if the reservation numbers look low," Front House Manager Jon Vanmaren said.
But if there's one thing Kansas Citians know, it's to not get too comfortable with the nice weather.
"I'm going to try and keep a hopeful attitude towards this being an actual spring and not a false spring, but you never know," Nord said. "It is Missouri."
KSHB 41 reporter Isabella Ledonne covers issues surrounding government accountability and solutions. Share your story with Isabella.
