Weekend of worry melts along with ice as Kansas City looks past winter storm

Wet weather will likely continue on Martin Luther King Jr. Day but temperatures are expected to be near 50 degrees as Kansas City leaves behind a weekend of dread over accumulating ice.

Freezing rain made roads slick, canceled church services and delayed travel on Sunday across the Kansas City area until icy conditions turned soggy when temperatures began to rise above freezing.

That was good news for fans heading to Sunday night’s Kansas City Chiefs playoff game against the Pittsburgh Steelers at Arrowhead Stadium, where the parking lots opened at 2 p.m.

On Sunday afternoon, the National Weather Service canceled the ice storm warning after a long weekend of dire advisories about significant icing and possible power outages. Many school districts had canceled classes on Friday, and shoppers crowded stores stocking up on supplies.

But it seems that Kansas City drivers dodged a bullet. Roads were treacherous for a while on Sunday but were not nearly as bad as predicted. On Sunday evening Kansas City Power & Light reported minimal power outages.

More than 50 flights out of Kansas City International Airport were canceled by 11 a.m. Sunday. By evening there were no additional cancellations, but 23 arrivals and departures were delayed.

Amy LaBelle of Lupton, Mich., was one of the travelers trying to get home Sunday. She was stranded at KCI after she attended a family court hearing in Bethany, Mo. She was supposed to fly out Saturday.

“I got to KCI at 9 a.m. Saturday, and here I sit,” LaBelle said Sunday afternoon. Her flight was rescheduled twice, and she was hoping to take off Sunday night.

“I’ve been watching videos on my phone, reading and I slept in increments in the food court,” she said. “I’ve hung out with the airport staff, and no matter what position they hold, they have been great and very fun to be around. They are very pleasant people.”

The good news for Kansas City is that the icy weekend is expected to give way to much warmer temperatures.

Temperatures are expected to be in the upper 40s, possibly lower 50s, on Monday, 40s on Tuesday and then 50s again by Wednesday. Highs could reach into the 60s by the weekend.

“There’s a a nice reward coming to us once we reach midweek,” said Jared Leighton, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Pleasant Hill, Mo.

The warmth will be a welcome change after an ice storm that dropped up to 1/10  of an inch of ice on the Kansas City area early Sunday. South of Kansas City, areas had an eighth to a quarter of an inch of ice.

The freezing rain turned areas roads icy, especially bridges, overpasses and ramps. Untreated roads, as well as sidewalks and parking lots, also were hazardous.

Two troopers were working a crash Sunday morning along northbound Interstate 635 near Kansas Avenue when a pickup driver lost control and crashed into the rear of a patrol car. That crash sent the patrol car into another trooper’s vehicle.

“They’re thankfully OK,” said Trooper Candice Breshears, a spokeswoman for the Kansas Highway Patrol’s Troop A, who added that the others involved were uninjured.

The first patrol vehicle had to be towed from the scene because of the damage. The second patrol vehicle could be driven away but will need repairs.

“Ice doesn’t care if you’re in a four-wheel-drive, rear-wheel-drive or front-wheel-drive car,” Breshears said. “Ice is nonforgiving. There’s black ice out there. Slow way, way down if you have to get out.”

The roads were primarily wet and slushy in the Kansas City area and across northeast Kansas for much of Sunday.

“We are seeing icy spots here and there, but nothing substantial,” said Kimberly Qualls, a spokeswoman for the Kansas Department of Transportation.

An ice storm is expensive to fight, Qualls said. Crews have to continue to reapply salt after rain washes it away.

“An ice storm such as this will use as much salt as a 12-inch snowstorm,” Qualls said. “Snow we can plow, but we use less salt. In this case, we can do nothing but treating the roads with salt. It’s never ending.”

Drivers were urged to give road crews plenty of room to work. A vehicle struck a Missouri Department of Transportation truck on Saturday morning, damaging the salt spreader. Although there were no injuries, that crash took one of the department’s 200 trucks out of service.

Sunday’s forecast of freezing rain and ice meant many churches were closed.

Sunday morning, T.J. Nidiffer of Prairie Village headed to the Village Presbyterian Church, 6641 Mission Road, to attend services, but he found the doors locked with a note saying services had been canceled because of the icy weather.

“The weather really isn’t too bad — it’s just kind of misting a little bit,” he said. “It’s warmer than I thought it would be. I guess we didn’t get the weather that they anticipated that we might get.”

He planned to go back home and do a little reading. Later he might watch the Chiefs game.

“If they are going to play and they don’t lock to doors to the stadium,” he said with a chuckle.

Outside the Kansas City Convention Center in downtown Kansas City, Angelo Hughes rode a tractor treating the sidewalks. He said it doesn’t take much ice to make the sidewalks slick.

“We’ve got to get all these sidewalks and ice melt down really good so nobody slips and falls,” he said. “Just be safe.”

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This story was originally published January 15, 2017 at 8:00 AM with the headline "Weekend of worry melts along with ice as Kansas City looks past winter storm."