Early school closings announced for Monday as winter storm hits KC area
Some school districts began canceling classes for Monday as other districts watched Sunday afternoon to see how badly a wind-driven winter storm would impair roads across the Kansas City area.
The Leavenworth, Basehor-Linwood and Fort Leavenworth school districts made early announcements to cancel Monday classes, and others told families to stay tuned Sunday afternoon. Kansas City Public Schools, North Kansas City, Shawnee Mission, Olathe and Blue Valley followed suit, announcing no school Monday.
Late in the afternoon, many school districts were calling off classes.
The University of Kansas announced it was closing classes Monday at both the Lawrence and Edwards campuses. The University of Missouri-Kansas City announced it would be closed as well. Kansas State University closed classes before noon on Monday at its Manhattan and Polytechnic campuses, and closed all Monday classes at its Olathe campus.
The announcements came after some other institutions canceled activities Sunday.
Public libraries throughout the Kansas City area closed Sunday, the Kansas City Symphony canceled its afternoon performance and dozens of flights were canceled at Kansas City Airport.
In the afternoon, KCI closed its airfield to arrivals, saying no planes could land until visibility improved.
With blizzard-like conditions sweeping in from the Northwest, many Sunday activities gave way as people heeded the warnings of the National Weather Service and public officials to stay home and off the roads.
The list of canceled activities grew throughout the day Sunday.
The Kansas City Public Library, Johnson County Libraries, Mid-Continent Public Library and the Kansas City, Kan., Public Library all announced that their branches were closed Sunday.
Johnson County Court Services announced that its supervised exchange service is also closed.
This story was originally published November 25, 2018 at 1:36 PM.