How much snow is Kansas City going to get tonight? Here’s what latest forecast says
Update: The Star will continue to cover weather conditions and related developments across the Kansas City area. Check here for the latest.
The first snow of the winter season might not amount to much, but it could create havoc with the morning commute on Tuesday in Kansas City.
An inch or two of snow is expected to fall across most areas in the Kansas City region from what is being described as a “pretty weak winter system” by Jared Leighton, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Kansas City.
“Generally speaking, I don’t think we’re expecting a very large impact system,” he said. “But with it being in the first one of the year it always kind of catches some people off guard.”
When all is said and done, the Kansas City metro is looking at an inch or so, he said. Most areas outside the immediate metro are expected to receive as much as an inch while some locations could see as much as 2 inches. Meanwhile, as much as 3 inches of snow could fall in central Missouri.
Part of the reason for the low snowfall total is that ground temperatures are expected to remain pretty warm. Conditions climbed into the 40s by noon. Because of that the ground, especially the pavement, will be able to melt some of the early onset snow, Leighton said.
“It might eventually start accumulating through the overnight hours but it’s going to take a little while to overcome kind of like warm ground temperatures early on,” he said. “It’s tough to say how much exactly people will wake up to Tuesday morning.”
Grassy areas will have a bit more snow accumulation. Roads, however, will likely be slushy.
“It’s going to be slick so everybody that’s heading out on their Tuesday morning commute are going to want to take it pretty slow and add a little more time to their commute,” he said.
The rain and snow is expected to start falling Monday evening, probably after sunset, which is 5:05 p.m. in Kansas City. The rain should switch over to all snow, probably around 9 or 10 p.m., and continue through 3 or 4 a.m. Tuesday.
The initial snowfall will probably melt on contact and it will take higher snow rates through the overnight hours along with cooler temperatures to overcome that. It might not be until the 10 p.m. to midnight time frame where roads start to see the impact from the snow.
Typically, Kansas City sees the first winter storm that brings 1 inch or more of snow around mid-December. Although this year is about a month early, it is not the earliest. That record was set Oct. 17, 1898, when 3.3 inches of snow fell, according to data from the NOAA Regional Climate Centers.
A winter weather advisory goes into effect from 8 p.m. Monday to 7 a.m. Tuesday. A wet snow is expected to fall during that time.
Ready for the storm
Kansas City announced its crews were pretreating roads ahead of the storm, even though they didn’t expect it to be a significant event.
“We are going to be aggressive in terms of how we fight snowfall in the future,” said Mayor Quinton Lucas in a news release. “No longer is it that we are reactionary, instead we will make sure we have enough salt, enough trucks, enough drivers to hit every Kansas City neighborhood, and hit it multiple times.”
The city has a fleet of 290 snow removal vehicles along hundreds of drivers who will work 24 hours a day before and after each storm. The city also has a stockpile of 40,000 tons of salt and has 10,000 additional tons of salt ordered.
The city announced changes to its snow removal plan including aggressively pretreating roads with salt, brine and “ice ban” in advance of storms, expanding snow removal efforts to 24 hours a day on residential routes, plowing curb-to-curb on all streets and adding 50 new vehicles to the snow removal fleet.
It will continue to suspend trash and recycling during big storms to make drivers available for plowing snow and to reduce the number of other vehicles on the road.
This story was originally published November 14, 2022 at 2:10 PM.
