How to plan your commute in the Wichita area amid Thursday’s snow
When you wake up Thursday, it will be to a different world.
Wednesday’s sunny weather, with highs reaching nearly 70 degrees in Wichita, will be swapped overnight with a winter storm. There will be “moderate to heavy snowfall” when people are making their morning commutes, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Vanessa Pearce.
Between 4 to 8 inches of snow is expected to dump on Wichita area on Thursday, likely surpassing the previous Feb. 17 record of 1.9 inches in 1979. Light snow will take over in the afternoon before the snow stops in time for people to make their evening commute, she said.
“Rain, freezing rain, and sleet likely before 4am, then sleet between 4am and 5am, then snow and sleet after 5am,” the NWS forecast says. “The sleet could be heavy at times. Some thunder is also possible.”
The rain, which Pearce said could be a quarter to half-inch, would make any pretreatment of the road less effective. “We don’t believe we will be able to pretreat with brine” because of the anticipated rain, city spokesperson Megan Lovely said.
Pearce said the sustained winds of 25 to 30 mph during people’s morning commute would also complicate road conditions. Gusts could be in the mid to high 30s.
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.
This story was originally published February 16, 2022 at 3:51 PM.