Piles of snow still linger in some parts of Johnson County from a historic January blizzard, but the Kansas City metro area is in for another winter storm this week.
Brad Temeyer, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Kansas City field office in Pleasant Hill, Missouri, told the Post that 6 to 10 inches of snowfall is expected on Wednesday.
Temeyer said snowfall is predicted to begin falling just after midnight and continue through most of the day. A winter storm warning takes effect at midnight and ends at 9 p.m. Wednesday.
This forecasted snowstorm comes a little more than a month after one of the biggest blizzards in the Kansas City area’s recorded history hit in early January.
That storm dropped nearly a foot of snow in Johnson County, leaving some of the larger cities in the county struggling for days to clear roads after the snow stopped.
The January blizzard also forced Johnson County schools to cancel nearly a week of classes on the tail end of winter break.
That means facing another winter storm this week, some Johnson County school districts have just one to three snow days left in their remaining schedule for the 2024-25 academic year. If more snow days are called, then additional days or time could be added to the schedule later in the year.
Here’s what Johnson Countians can expect from the forecast this week:
‘Moderate to major impacts across the region’
- Temeyer said the National Weather Service is anticipating “moderate to major impacts across the region” from Wednesday’s snow storm.
- Johnson County is under a winter storm warning from 12 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 12, he said, with an anticipated 6 to 10 inches of snow and northeast winds of 10 to 20 miles per hour.
- Forecasters are anticipating less snow accumulation than the January blizzard but “still expecting major disruptions to travel,” Temeyer said.
- Along with the snow, temperatures will be bone-chilling, with a forecast high Wednesday of 25 degrees and the thermometer expected to plunge to single digits Wednesday night.
- Driving conditions will likely be dicey on Wednesday, and Temeyer advises those who need to travel that day to have a fully charged phone and a winter survival kit (including a blanket, bottled water, a candy bar or snack and dry socks) in their vehicles.
- “If people in Johnson County have travel plans, it’s best to postpone or delay travel plans, especially on Wednesday,” Temeyer said. “Wednesday is going to be the difficult day across the region.”
Cities prepare for winter storm
The city of Olathe is keeping an eye on forecasts and plans to “have all trucks fitted, filled and ready to go” on Tuesday morning for pretreatment of all roads, the city’s Chief Communications and Marketing Officer Cody Kennedy told the Post on Monday.
Olathe also asks all residents to park cars in driveways so that streets “can be plowed in a timely manner,” Kennedy said.
Overland Park city spokesperson Meg Ralph said in a news release Monday night that the city would being pre-treating busier “priority streets” Monday night and Tuesday morning, if needed.
For Johnson County’s biggest city, Ralph said crews will focus on clearing “high-volume, multi-lane roads” first, followed by collector streets bordering neighborhoods and commercial areas and then, finally, neighborhood streets.
Ralph said Overland Park residents should expect it to take up to 48 hours after snow stops falling for all streets to be passed over, meaning many neighborhoods may not see plows until Friday.
Lenexa Communications Director Denise Rendina told the Post on Monday that crews will start “monitoring roads at 4 a.m. Tuesday to determine the optimal time to start treatment for maximum effectiveness, likely as snow begins to accumulate.”
Rendina said Lenexa crews will treat slick areas on Tuesday as needed.
The city of Shawnee began pretreating residential roads Monday afternoon, with plans to treat major roadways and arterial streets on Monday night, according to a city Facebook post.
Schools still have 1 to 3 snow days left
- Following three to four consecutive snow days in early January, most Johnson County school districts have only a handful of snow days left.
- Both the Shawnee Mission School District and Olathe Public Schools have just one remaining day of their four budgeted snow days in their respective calendars.
- Blue Valley Schools has two remaining days of its budgeted five snow days.
- Unified School District 232 in De Soto has three remaining days of its six budgeted snow days.
Another round of snow this weekend?
Looking beyond Wednesday, the National Weather Service says there is a likelihood of more snow this weekend.
Current longer range forecasts show a 70% chance of wintry precipitation on Saturday that could include both rain and snow.
Forecasters have yet to release models of how much snow that later system could pack.
