9:55am Update from Kansas City

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State of Emergency declared by Kansas City mayor. 

This is Interstate 35 at Shawnee Mission Parkway, a major intersection, on the Kansas side of the metro area.

I have highlighted stuck cars. Next to at least three of them, you can see the drivers out of the car. Thundersnow has been occurring in some parts of the KC area and it is snowing very heavily.

Note: The lightning risk in thundersnow is the same as it is in any lightning situation.

 AccuWeather Regional Radar within two minutes of the above photo (radar 9:32, photo 9:34am) shows very dark blue echoes over KC and especially the near-southwest suburbs.
Snow is becoming more widespread over the western half of Kansas south into the Texas Panhandle. The purple areas are ice: sleet and freezing rain.

Below is the amount of snow forecast to fall from 6am this morning (i.e., 4 hours ago) to 6am Saturday morning. Note the very heavy amounts around KC.

Update: 10:08am: Kansas City International Airport is now closed. 

Update: 10am. Interstate 35/Kansas Turnpike in the Flint Hills at Cassoday, KS. While the road has been treated I'm shocked there are zero vehicles in the photo. 

Comments

  1. BrianFebruary 21, 2013 at 11:41 AM

    According to the FAA website, MCI is not expected to reopen until 4p CT FRIDAY! I assume they simply don't have the equipment to deal with this magnitude of a snow storm.

    ReplyDelete

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