Crashes, closures, record weather: What to know about the Wichita snowstorm
A rare combination of a snowstorm that hit Kansas on Thursday morning caused closures, power outages, accidents and record weather.
Here’s what you need to know:
Rare snow squall
The Wichita area was under a rare snow squall warning from around 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. A snow squall is a “intense short-lived burst of heavy snowfall that leads to a quick reduction in visibility and is often accompanied by gusty winds,” according to the NWS. It is not common to the Wichita area, even during snowstorms.
National Weather Service meteorologist Christian Williams told The Eagle around 11 a.m. that it was Wichita’s first snow squall since the term was defined in 2018.
A snow squall has a criteria of a quarter-mile or less of visibility, winds of at least 30 mph and snow, he said. The combination can cause whiteout conditions.
The NWS put out a snow squall warning for an area including Wichita from around 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. and then again from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. Wichita had winds in the low 30s and gusts in the mid 40s during the snow squall warning time. NWS data shows less than a half-inch of snow during that time, but that snow came down harder at certain times.
Coldest wind chill recorded
The negative 32 degree wind chill recorded at 8 a.m. at the Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport is the coldest wind chill reported at the airport since reliable data started in 2000, according to the National Weather Service in Wichita.
Roads covered
Wichita highways are completely covered with snow, according to the Kansas Department of Transportation maps. Highways all across the state have some type of snow coverage, the map shows. The map also shows multiple vehicles wrecked and stalled in the Wichita area Thursday morning.
Road conditions on Kansas highways can be checked at kandrive.org.
Power outages
As of 9:15 a.m., the Evergy power map shows several thousand people in Wichita without power.
Planning your drive
Officials are advising people not to drive unless they have to. If you do have to drive, here are ways you can plan the safest route in the Wichita area:
GPS trackers allow people to see what city streets have been plowed within the last 15 minutes, 60 minutes and 24 hours. The map is available at wichita.gov/snowremoval. A list of roads that the city plows is also available here.
Kandrive.org allows people to see road conditions and any accidents on Kansas highways.
Accidents start
The light snow and worsening conditions started crashes in the Wichita area Wednesday morning.
A Sedgwick County Emergency Communications supervisor said the “bridge is getting slick” after a semi wrecked around 10 a.m. Wednesday on eastbound Kellogg near Tyler. No one was injured.
The conditions kept getting worse throughout the day. Wichita police tweeted just after 1:30 p.m. that officers were currently working 20 crashes around the city.
Kansas Highway Patrol reported nine wrecks with injuries on Wednesday, including four in Sedgwick County. There were only three across the whole state the KHP reported on Tuesday. Three of the Sedgwick County wrecks mention ice or sliding. Two of those happened on I-135, then one each on K-254 and K-96.
The KHP has already listed one wreck on its crash log for Thursday. It’s an accident on K-96 in Sedgwick County that involved the driver losing control.
Sedgwick County Emergency Communications reported 324 calls for accidents from 9:01 a.m. Wednesday until 10:30 a.m. Thursday. For comparison, from 9 a.m. Tuesday to 9 a.m. Wednesday, before road conditions started to deteriorate, there were 56 calls for accidents. Those calls can include an accident reported by multiple people.
Closures
Brooks C&D Landfill closed Thursday morning because of the extreme weather.
Also:
▪ The Kansas Humane Society
▪ The Sedgwick County Zoo
▪ Botanica and Illuminations
▪ Cowtown
▪ Indian Museum
▪ Museum of World Treasures
▪ Kansas Aviation Museum
▪ Wichita Art Museum
▪ Keeper of the Plains bridges will be closed through the weekend and no flames will be lit
This story was originally published December 22, 2022 at 9:32 AM.