Heavier snow moves into Kansas City, with dozens of car crashes reported Friday
A band of snow working its way into the north side of the Kansas City metro area early in the lunch hour Friday will lead to deteriorating road conditions for the next two hours, the National Weather Service in Kansas City said on Twitter.
The blowing snow is from a winter storm that is limiting visibility in the metro, where Kansas City police responded to dozens of car crashes that caused injures Friday. The storm is bringing blizzard conditions to areas north of Kansas City.
“Travel is becoming more difficult across the KC metro,” the national weather service said on Twitter. “If you have to travel, make sure to allow for extra time, drive slowly, and check the latest weather and road conditions.”
Several schools in the Kansas City area, including Blue Springs, Grandview, Grain Valley and Fort Osage, announced they were closing their school buildings and having students attend classes through remote learning.
“For the remainder of the day today, we can continue to see those snow showers, blowing snow with very strong winds out of the northwest gusting still at times above 40 mph,” said FOX4 meteorologist Michelle Bogowith, who provides weather updates to The Star.
“As we head into the evening commute for tonight, notice things starting to wrap up out to the west — still ongoing on the Missouri side, likely some snow that will be blowing,” she said.
Up to 2 inches of snow is expected once the snowfall eventually comes to an end.
“It’s going to be extremely difficult to take measurements with this because of how much that wind is going to be blowing around,” Bogowith said. “Where we have that blizzard warning, higher totals likely: 2 to 4 inches will be possible.”
Crews have been out treating the roads, but local agencies have been urging drivers to slow down and drive carefully if they have to be out on the roads.
In Kansas City, snow crews are following the city’s new snow plan which includes aggressive salting on neighborhood streets.
Meanwhile, Kansas City police said on Twitter that between 4 and 11:30 a.m. Friday it responded to 34 injury crashes compared to 5 injury crashes for the same time period on Thursday. During that same period, it had 21 non-injury crashes Friday, compared to 3 on Thursday.
The Missouri Highway Patrol’s Troop A, which includes the Kansas City area, said troopers had responded to nearly 100 calls of service by noon, including 46 motorist assists and 17 vehicles crashes. The agency reported that one person had been injured and there had been no fatalities.
Clouds and cold air will remain for the weekend. Temperatures will start off in the 20s Sunday morning, but 36-degree weather is expected by kickoff of the NFL playoff game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Cleveland Browns Sunday afternoon at Arrowhead Stadium, she said.
“By the second half of the game Sunday, we’ll be down into the lower 30s,” Bogowith said.
The Martin Luther King Jr. holiday should bring moderate weather with temperatures in the middle 40s on Monday, according to Bogowith’s long-range forecast. Highs on Tuesday will drop to 38 degrees, which is typical for this time of year in Kansas City.
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.
This story was originally published January 15, 2021 at 12:14 PM.
