Latest winter storm update

I'll keep today's blog update short because not too much as changed in the last 24 hours. We still expect an ice storm to hit this weekend. What might be most helpful is to take a look at snapshots of our latest Future Track data to try and pin down when your area will see ice.

The ice begins along and southeast of the Kansas Turnpike Friday:

Friday night and into early Saturday, most of the ice and slick roads will be in south central and southeast Kansas:

Heavier ice begins to set in Saturday afternoon and into the night:

Heaviest ice will come Saturday night and Sunday. HOWEVER... temperatures will gradually warm in central and eastern Kansas, so we may not add to the ice accumulation. BUT... western Kansas will likely continue getting freezing rain and sleet Sunday.

Ice accumulation through 3 a.m. Sunday - could be enough to cause tree damage and power outages. THIS IS ONLY THROUGH 3 A.M. - MORE ICE WILL STILL BE COMING THROUGH THE MORNING HOURS.

The final piece to this storm will come Monday morning with heavy snow across western Kansas. Latest forecast models indicate some 5-8 inches of accumulating snow in northwest Kansas. We will be covering that as the weekend continues.

How do we get so much ice and not snow? Temperatures at 5,000 feet in the air will be in the 40s, so it's WAY too warm for any snow to fall through much of the weekend. With temperatures near the ground around freezing, that's when we run into problems. The rain begins to stick to everything.

I don't believe this storm will be quite as bad as 2005. One of the biggest reasons - wind. We don't expect to see gusty winds with this weekend storm like we did in 2005. Hopefully that will help out AND temperatures may not be as cold as they were in 2005.