Freezing drizzle continues to make road conditions dangerous in Wichita area

Freezing drizzle blanketed Sedgwick County on Friday night, and dangerous driving conditions will continue over the weekend in the Wichita area, forecasters say.

“It just looks like today and Sunday are going to be kind of ugly,” said Eric Metzger, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Wichita.

It wasn’t just treacherous for drivers: By around mid-day Saturday, three Wesley hospital emergency facilities across the city had treated 35 people for weather-related injuries, said Wesley spokeswoman Susan Burchill. Of the 35 people injured, 34 were hurt by falling on ice, and one person suffered from hypothermia, she said.

From 6:30 a.m. to around 1:30 p.m. Saturday, the Via Christi Hospital St. Francis emergency room treated 13 people for ice-related injuries, said relief charge nurse Jeanne Martin.

Motorists encountered freezing drizzle that coated surfaces in Sedgwick County on Friday night, with apparently thicker accumulations in western Sedgwick County, Metzger said.

Drizzle is especially dangerous for driving because it is light and thin, freezes quickly and is difficult to see, Metzger said. Yet drivers tend underestimate the hazard, he said.

“Basic advice: If you don’t need to be out, don’t be out. It’s just a risk you don’t need to take.”

Since midnight, there have been 11 non-injury accidents and two injury accidents in Wichita and Sedgwick County, according to a 911 dispatcher contacted shortly before 9 a.m. Saturday. The injury accidents involved less than serious injuries.

The Harvey County Sheriff’s office reported slick roads on a Facebook post Saturday. “I-135 and Hwy 50 are drivable but there are some slick spots,” the post said.

The forecast for Saturday includes freezing rain and sleet and more freezing drizzle overnight.

Saturday’s high temperature is not expected to rise above 30, and even if temperatures reach the mid-30s on Sunday, dangerous driving conditions will continue because surfaces will still be too cold for all of the accumulated ice to melt, Metzger said. It takes sunshine for thorough melting.

Weather conditions and road conditions are expected to begin improving Monday as temperatures rise, he said.

Kansas Turnpike spokeswoman Rachel Bell said Saturday that road crews have been out since Thursday evening “and will be out as needed throughout the storm.”

In an e-mail Saturday morning, she gave this advice: “We encourage drivers to ask themselves if they must travel. If the answer is yes, they should slow down, stay alert and take extra precautions on elevated surfaces.”

Meanwhile, there was a good development for utility customers. Weather-related power outages in Butler County – where at one point Friday thousands of customers were without power, mostly in El Dorado – were resolved as of 3 a.m. Saturday. The outages occurred because of a combination of ice and high winds, said Westar Energy spokeswoman Yvonne Etzel.

This story was originally published November 28, 2015 at 8:55 AM with the headline "Freezing drizzle continues to make road conditions dangerous in Wichita area."