Parts of Kansas City metro see 8 inches of snow as storm causes school closures
A winter storm dumped several inches of snow on the Kansas City region Sunday, causing schools to cancel Monday classes and drivers to spin off slippery roadways in northeast Kansas and western Missouri.
Law enforcement responded to dozens of collisions as 4 to 8 inches of snow accumulated in parts of the metro and officials urged people to avoid driving as much as possible. The Kansas City area was expected to see more snow Sunday night and Monday morning that could make trouble for people driving to work.
“Many side roads are not even plowed,” the National Weather Service in Pleasant Hill warned Sunday on Twitter, “and its hard to even see where the road is at times.”
Because of the expected snowy weather and hazardous road conditions, more than two dozen school districts, including Kansas City Public Schools, canceled classes for Monday.
By Sunday afternoon, the Missouri Highway Patrol said troopers in the Kansas City region had responded to numerous crashes in Bates, Cass, Jackson, Johnson, Lafayette and Henry counties. Troopers responded to more than 300 calls for service — a call volume the agency described earlier in the day as “persistent and relentless.”
Of those calls, 97 were for stranded motorists, 114 were non-injury crashes and 12 were wrecks that ended with injuries. No crashes in the metro had been reported as fatal as of Sunday evening.
In Clay County, a wreck involving multiple vehicles closed southbound Interstate 35 and clogged traffic for at least an hour, according to the sheriff’s office there. And in Riley County, Kansas, a crash involving five vehicles, including three tractor-trailers, on Interstate 70 south of Manhattan blocked the westbound lanes.
At least two metro police departments, including Overland Park, requested that drivers involved in non-injury crashes walk in their crash reports at a later date because of the conditions. An officer with the Lenexa Police Department, which reported responding to “lots of crashes,” said the highways Sunday afternoon were “terrible.”
In Kansas City, the fire department said it responded to more than 40 traffic collisions between 7 and 10 a.m.
Mayor Quinton Lucas said snow plow drivers would be working through Sunday night and Monday, calling on residents to stay off the roads and give the workers space to clear the snow.
Monday’s commute
As of 6 p.m. Sunday, the National Weather Service recorded a total snowfall of 8 inches at its office in Pleasant Hill. Five inches had fallen since noon. Most of the region reported between 4 and 7 inches Sunday afternoon.
A winter storm warning will remain in effect until 6 p.m. Monday for east-central and northeast Kansas and west-central Missouri, including Miami, Leavenworth, Wyandotte and Johnson Counties in Kansas and Platte, Clay, Jackson and Cass counties in Missouri.
The metro area was expected to see another 1 or 2 inches of snow Sunday night, with more on the way Monday, according to meteorologists. That could affect Monday’s morning commute.
The Sunday evening forecast from the weather service in Pleasant Hill called for 2.6 inches of snow later Sunday. Areas to the east, near Moberly, were expected to see as much as 3.3 inches more. To the west, areas near Topeka were expected to see about 1.7 inches.
“It may not be the heaviest burst of snow all day, not like what we will have seen on Sunday, but I still expect it to even impact the evening rush hour before it gets out of here completely and it’s much colder,” FOX4 meteorologist Garry Frank, who provides weather updates for The Star, said Sunday afternoon. “It’s still high impact even though it’s less snow.”
Another round of snow was in the forecast Monday, from about 5 a.m. to 7 a.m. Snow totals through Monday night could reach 2 to 5 inches and 5 to 8 inches in different parts of the metro, Frank said.
The weather service advised anyone traveling to stay cautious as visibility may quickly diminish.
BEHIND THE STORY
MOREHow we did this story
The Star produced this weather update in partnership with the local FOX4 television station. The station’s meteorologists create forecast videos multiple times a day for the newspaper to include in its weather reports.
