After the first major snowstorm of 2026, Overland Park city officials say they’re satisfied with how well a new online snow map performed during the plowing process.
“The plow map performed well,” city spokesperson Meg Ralph said, noting that it worked as intended. “It gave up-to-date information about the status of our trucks and streets, and showed the community’s names for each vehicle while they were working their way across the map.”
As of Monday afternoon, the map showed that essentially all city streets had been serviced at least once (making them green on the map), and some plows were out doing some touch-up work in various parts of the city.
How did the snow clearing go after this most recent show?
In general, it seemed community members were also happier with the city’s snowplowing process this time around, a year after a historic blizzard led to widespread complaints and prompted the city to rethink how it keeps residents updated on snowplowing.
On social media, posts on the city’s official accounts about the weather drew mostly positive commentary.
Councilmember Melissa Cheatham said she hasn’t heard from any constituents about the snow clearing, aside from some positive feedback on social media posts she’d made to her own page.
“I have not heard from anyone, which tells me people are happy,” Cheatham said.
She’s not alone. Councilmember Gregg Riess offered a similar assessment. He said that in previous weather events involving snow, he saw “quite a bit of negative feedback.”
“But this weekend I heard really nothing,” he said.
And Councilmember Drew Mitrisin said, “I’ve received exactly zero resident emails about snow removal on streets, which makes me think folks are mostly satisfied and appreciative of our snow team.”
Some residents did have complaints online
A few people on social media did complain about some rough patches on residential streets and partially plowed cul-de-sacs.
Craig Jacobson, who lives in northern Overland Park, said he “was impressed with the pre-treatment” the city did before the storm but was less than pleased with how well his residential street was plowed.
“Compared to the past, it definitely could have been better,” he said, noting that his cul-de-sac was plowed in a way that makes getting out of it a challenge. “Not very well is an understatement. Would’ve been better off if it wasn’t plowed at all.”
Why did Overland Park get a new snow map?
Called the Snow Operations Map, the new map is intended to be “more accurate and timely” than the old map, city officials said.
The old map was a sticking point in early 2025, when residents and city leaders alike criticized its accuracy and its inability to deliver real-time information during a multiday snow event that was also complicated by record-low temperatures.
In the end, the old map was not able to keep up with all of those factors at once. At times, because it required manual updates and used automated data, the old map also showed streets that were actually unplowed as being cleared.
According to records obtained by the Post, Overland Park received thousands of submissions to its online OP Cares customer service system related to snow-clearing issues last winter, including resident complaints about unplowed streets and confusion about the old snow map.
Last weekend’s snowstorm, though much less significant in both total snowfall and sustained low temperatures, drew a fraction of submissions about snow-clearing issues, according to city data received by the Post.
“You may recall that we discovered some challenges with our old snow map during the long winter storm in late January last year,” Ralph told the Post previously. “We found that during multi-day snow events, the map wasn’t accurately displaying street status and plow operations.”
Keep reading: Overland Park rolls out new online snow map that officials say will be more ‘accurate and timely’
