Icy conditions cause KC schools to close; ‘very slick’ roads, weather service says
Icy, snow-covered roads are expected to make the morning commute dangerous in Kansas City area, the National Weather Service in Pleasant Hill, Mo. warned.
A winter storm moved through the area overnight causing roads wet from Tuesday rains to flash freeze as temperatures to drop into the teens. After the rain, a wintry mix brought additional ice and snow to the area.
“This is making for very slick roadways around the area this morning,” the National Weather Service said in a special weather statement Wednesday morning. “Extra time and extreme caution will be needed for anyone making a morning commute.”
A winter weather advisory has been extended by a few hours in the Kansas City area because of flash freezing and snow in the forecast.
Icy road conditions caused problems to the west earlier in the day, and by Tuesday night, the National Weather Service was tweeting that it was receiving “multiple reports of slick roads across northern MO, NE KS and now in the KC Metro.”
In the Kansas City area, the winter weather advisory that ended 6 a.m. Wednesday.
It includes parts of northeast Kansas and northwest Missouri, including Leavenworth, Wyandotte, Johnson and Miami counties in Kansas and Platte, Clay, Ray, Jackson and Cass counties in Missouri.
The weather service is estimating 1 to 3 inches of snow and ice accumulations of up to .10 of an inch Tuesday night through early Wednesday in the affected areas.
Several schools in the metro have canceled classes for Wednesday due to dangerous road conditions caused by the ice.
Many districts, including Kansas City Public Schools, earlier had decided to cancel games and activities scheduled in the evening. Those cancellations came as transportation officials and authorities warned that roads have the potential to be slick as people headed home from work.
“Temps are expected to dip drastically later this afternoon,” the Missouri Department of Transportation said on Twitter. “Roads could potentially become slick. If possible, leave work early. Be safe. Be smart.”
The agency’s Kansas City office also announced that crews were salting roads Tuesday evening.
Kansas City officials said on Twitter that the local government would have road crews report at 7:30 p.m. to work through the night.
The Kansas Department of Transportation announced that a night crew would start treating roads in the metro as soon as the rain turned to frozen precipitation. Later in the night, it warned that temperatures would possibly become too low for ice treatment to be effective.
“Drivers should expect ice overnight, especially on bridges and overpasses,” KDOT said on Twitter.
The National Weather Service said on its Kansas City Twitter account at 3 p.m. that, although temperatures were above freezing in the afternoon, “Road conditions will not be friendly tonight.”
Earlier Tuesday, the Kansas Department of Transportation had closed Interstate 70 west of Topeka because of numerous crashes caused by icy conditions.
It reopened the interstate by 4:30 p.m., though it warned roads were still “snowpacked and icy” across the northwest part of the state.
This story was originally published January 22, 2019 at 4:37 PM.
