After overnight ice storm, KC area nears record snowfall level for New Year’s Day
Kansas City neared record amounts of snow on New Year’s Day as a storm continued to dump snow across the metro area.
Before noon Friday, the National Weather Service had reported 2.5 to 3.5 inches of snow in most parts of the area, said forecaster Spencer Mell. The official January 1 record was set in 1948, when Kansas City International Airport recorded 3.5 inches.
The airport saw less snow than most parts of the region with about 1.7 inches counted by noon, Mell said. That number will go up as updated counts arrive, but may not hit the record.
“I don’t know that it was enough to push them over the top,” the forecaster said.
While the airport, the city’s official measuring stick, may not beat the 1948 record, many parts of the region had already surpassed that by early Friday afternoon. Many cities in the area saw three to four inches of snow by 2 p.m.
“I think we’ve probably seen the bulk of our accumulation,” Mell said. “Maybe another inch is possible. So probably most places will see four inches, some areas might see five.”
Forecasters expected the heavies snowfall to subside by early afternoon, with the storm moving out of the area by about 6 p.m. Friday.
But travelers were advised to stay home if possible as the snow piled atop a layer of ice that blanketed the region overnight.
The National Weather Service upgraded a winter weather advisory to a winter storm warning Thursday night. That warning remained in effect until 8 p.m. Friday as forecasters predicted travel could be “nearly impossible” on Friday.
State and city crews worked throughout the night to treat roadways, but the Missouri Department of Transportation was warning travelers to stay off the roads as most major highways remained covered in ice and snow.
“It’s certainly a tricky forecast and tricky for them to deal with freezing rain falling first and then putting snow on top of that,” Mell said. “So it will probably be a while before they can clear everything. So if you can stay off the roads, that’s the best advice.”
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas hit the road with a 23-year veteran snow plow driver Friday morning, documenting his travels around the city on Twitter.
The City of Independence said it had cleared lanes in many of the biggest arteries by 10 a.m., but crews wouldn’t start focusing on residential streets until the snow stopped falling.
As of about 8 a.m., Evergy reported more than 11,000 customers were without power in Kansas and Missouri as ice and wind knocked over power lines. By 11 a.m., the number of outages had declined to about 6,300 customers.
Luckily, the winter storm hit on the first holiday of the year, keeping many would-be commuters off the roads. But police did respond to many accidents and collisions as cars struggled on icy streets.
Interstate 49 in Cass County was briefly closed Friday morning as a jack-knifed tractor trailer blocked northbound lanes. Stalled vehicles and collisions were reported on both sides of the state line with incidents on interstates 35, 29 and 70.
Some injuries were reported.
The Overland Park Police Department advised individuals involved in non-injury collisions to avoid calling the police and bring in crash reports at a later date.
The department was still responding to crashes involving injuries or when drivers were suspected to be under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
This story was originally published January 1, 2021 at 12:46 PM.
