Rain, snow and freezing rain will fall on Wichita streets and Kansas highways

Wichita snowplow crews planned to start treating city streets late Friday night in preparation for a winter storm that threatens to make travel in Kansas more dangerous over the weekend.

Alan King, Wichita’s public works director, said city crews would come in around 8 p.m. and start treating roads around midnight.

“Our staff prepares for these kinds of events by keeping our salt and sand reserves ready and at adequate stocking levels, by training our employees who go out and man the trucks and respond to the events, by doing regular maintenance on our snow and ice equipment and by many other behind-the-scenes activities,” King said.

Forecasters at the Wichita branch of the National Weather Service predict Friday night rain, freezing rain and sleet will likely turn into Saturday morning snow, with a low around 19 degrees and wind gusts of up to 43 mph. The chance of precipitation is 80 percent, but snow accumulation is not expected to exceed half an inch with little or no ice accumulation.

Saturday is expected to be mostly cloudy with a high near 26 degrees and wind gusts as high as 38 mph pushing the wind chill to near zero, weather service forecasters predict. Sunday’s weather is predicted to be sunny with a high near 42 degrees with wind gusts of up to 21 mph. The warmer temperatures will continue on Monday, with a high near 52 degrees on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

The NWS hazardous weather outlook for portions of central, south central and southeast Kansas calls for trace to 2 inches of snow and freezing drizzle or light freezing rain. Wind speeds over 40 mph could cause some blowing snow and reduced visibility for drivers along I-135, forecasters say.

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly issues a State of Disaster Emergency declaration for the state ahead of the winter storm, authorizing the use of state resources and personnel to assist local emergency responders.

There chance of freezing rain is most concerning for drivers and traffic in Wichita.

“Of all the events, that’s the most challenging for us,” King said. “Snow is not nearly as bad — you can plow it off. It’s when you have rain turning to ice, that’s difficult for us. One of the reasons why is because even when we put material down on the streets, the rain has a tendency to wash it off, so now you’re basically starting over again. So what we do is go out ahead of the event and put as much as we can down with the hopes that it doesn’t all rinse off in the rain.”

The city has 7,500 tons of salt-sand mix ready to use and an additional 8,000 tons of pure salt in reserve. There are 160 staff members are trained and ready to work, but only 60 work at a time driving the 60 trucks during 12 hour shifts, King said.

Internet users can follow the paths of Wichita snowplows online at www.wichita.gov/PWU/Pages/SnowRemoval.aspx.

Drivers can check Kansas highway road conditions online at www.kandrive.org/kandrive. Kansas Department of Transportation statewide highway traffic cameras and Wichita cameras are also available online.

“Motorists do share in the responsibility of safe travel on our roads,” Wichita police Officer Charley Davidson said. “We want to encourage everybody if you don’t have to get out in a winter storm, please stay home.”

King and Davidson asked that drivers leave early, slow down, give themselves more time, have more stopping distance with the vehicles in front of them, give snowplows extra room, be extra vigilant on raised roadways, have both hands on the wheel, use their seat belts and put down their phones.

This story was originally published January 18, 2019 at 4:46 PM.