Snow and below-zero wind chill expected in Wichita area overnight, meteorologist says

When you wake up Thursday morning, there should be snow on the ground with a below-zero wind chill.

The Wichita area is expected to see less than an inch of snow overnight and have a wind chill as low as negative 10 degrees, with the coldest temperatures expected to hit late morning, including when people are going to work.

The sustained winds of around 20 to 25 mph will make the wind chill feel “dangerously cold,” the National Weather Service in Wichita said. Wind gusts can be up to 35 mph.

The actual temperature around Wichita is expected to drop to a low of around 10 degrees overnight, according to NWS meteorologist Vanessa Pearce.

The Wichita meteorologist said the coldest temperatures in the region will be in Russell, which expects a negative 20-degree wind chill and between one to two inches of snow.

Along the Nebraska/Kansas border, the forecast calls for 3 to 4 inches of snow, she said.

Highways around Sedgwick County won’t be pretreated with anything to help prevent accidents since a mix of brine and salt was used a few days ago when snow hit the area on New Year’s Day, according to Kansas Department of Transportation spokesperson Tim Potter.

“Statewide, whether we pretreat, and how, will vary depending on how the forecasts differ from area to area,” he said in an email. “Along I-70 in northwestern Kansas, for example, we are not pretreating because temperatures are expected to be so low that they render pretreatment materials ineffective.”

The weather is expected be down around 10 degrees Thursday night before climbing into the mid-30s on Friday and around 60 degrees Saturday afternoon, Pearce said.