Updated: Wednesday, 5:30 a.m.
A major winter storm rolled into the Kansas City metro Wednesday morning, hitting just before the morning rush hour.
Most Johnson County school districts, including Blue Valley, Olathe and Shawnee Mission, preemptively announced Tuesday evening that they were canceling classes Wednesday, with forecasts predicting snowfall totals of 3 to 7 inches.
Those accumulation totals have been “dialed back” somewhat, said National Weather Service meteorologist Randall Collier on Wednesday morning, but residents should still take their time on area roadways throughout the day.
“We’re expecting anywhere from 3 to 6 inches across the area with higher totals the further north you go,” Collier said. “It turns out it wasn’t as great as we were first expecting, but it’s still going to be strong enough that you will feel the impacts as you travel for sure.”
Collier said forecasters expect snow in the Kansas City area, including in Johnson County, to taper off between 2 and 4 p.m. Wednesday. A winter storm warning issued by the National Weather Service will remain in effect until 9 p.m.
Snow during the morning rush
Some of the heaviest snow of Wednesday’s storm will come during the morning commute, Collier said.
The heaviest of the snow is going to impact the morning commute in the KC area. If you are travelling this morning allow plenty of extra time and use extreme caution. pic.twitter.com/c5jMZiTYBy
— NWS Kansas City (@NWSKansasCity) February 12, 2025
The Kansas Highway Patrol’s online map of current road conditions showed all major highways in Johnson County, including Interstate 35 and Interstate 435, were already completely covered with snow by 6:30 a.m.
The Highway Patrol also reported a crash on eastbound Kansas Highway 10 in Lenexa, past Ridgeview Road, that happened just after 5 a.m.
In its winter storm alert bulletin, the National Weather Service said, “Roads, and especially bridges and overpasses, will likely become slick and hazardous. Plan on slippery road conditions. The hazardous conditions could impact the Wednesday morning and evening commutes.”
Schools cancel classes
Johnson County’s biggest public school districts announced Tuesday ahead of the storm that classes on Wednesday would be canceled.
They include:
- Blue Valley: All schools and district facilities are closed; conferences scheduled for Wednesday will be rescheduled; decisions on after-school activities will be made later in the day
- Olathe: All schools, district facilities and daycare operations are closed on Wednesday, originally scheduled as a half day, as well as Thursday, when classes were already off but conferences were scheduled; parent-teacher conferences scheduled for Wednesday have been rescheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 19; conferences originally scheduled for Thursday will be rescheduled; the district spelling bee scheduled for Thursday morning is still on at this point
- Shawnee Mission: All schools, district facilities and daycare operations are canceled Wednesday, decisions on after-school activities will be made later in the day
- Spring Hill: All classes and school activities are canceled, conferences will be rescheduled
- USD 232 De Soto: All classes, after-school activities and before- and after-school care services are canceled; conferences scheduled for Wednesday will be rescheduled; conferences scheduled for Thursday will proceed as planned for now
Gardner Edgerton schools were already scheduled to be off Wednesday for parent-teacher conferences. The superintendent says those conferences scheduled for Wednesday will take place virtually.
Area private schools are also impacted. Both Bishop Miege High School in Roeland Park and Kansas City Christian Academy in Prairie Village announced classes would be canceled on Wednesday.
St. James Academy in Lenexa and St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Overland Park both announced students would stay home and learn virtually.
Overland Park’s snow plow street map not available
Overland Park announced this week that its online map updating what streets have been plowed will be unavailable during this storm.
City spokesperson Meg Ralph suggested longer-than-average delays in clearing streets after January’s historic blizzard led to “confusion” among residents about when or if their neighborhood’s streets had been cleared.
“The city learned in January that the longevity of snow removal operations impacted the efficacy of the snow map,” Ralph said in a news release. “We are actively working on a new public mapping system.”
Ralph said that the city began pre-treating busier “priority streets” Monday night and Tuesday morning.
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.
Other cities prepare for snow
The city of Olathe was prepared 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 is asking residents to park cars in driveways so that streets “can be plowed in a timely manner,” Kennedy said.
Meanwhile, Lenexa’s city Communications Director Denise Rendina told the Post on Monday that crews would 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 would treat slick areas on Tuesday as needed.
Shawnee also began pretreating residential roads Monday afternoon, with plans to treat major roadways and arterial streets on Monday night, according to a city Facebook post.
