A Foot or More of Snow Slams Midwest States

Dave Kaup/Reuters

A windy snowstorm battered the nation’s middle section on Thursday, with sights like this one in Overland Park, Kan., common.

By JOHN ELIGON

Published: February 21, 2013

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled as a frigid, windy winter storm whipped through the middle of the country on Thursday, dumping more than a foot of snow in some areas. Highways looked like obstacle courses with jackknifed trucks and other vehicles stuck on roads and in ditches.

Jaime Green/The Wichita Eagle, via Associated Press

The governors of Missouri and Kansas declared emergencies in their states. Here, the mayor made an emergency declaration for the first time since the city’s last blizzard, two years ago. Hundreds of flights were delayed or canceled throughout the Midwest, including two commercial flights from Omaha that Gov. Dave Heineman of Nebraska was scheduled to take to Washington for a convention.

Thursday’s storm was part of a larger system that started in the southwestern part of the country earlier this week and has stretched from southern South Dakota down to the Gulf Coast. It produced thunderstorms in Louisiana, and heavy rain is expected, with the possibility of flooding, in areas from Mississippi through South Carolina, according to the National Weather Service. Snow is expected to push through the Great Lakes states on Friday.

By Thursday afternoon, 17 inches of snow had accumulated in Hays, Kan., in the western part of the state, the weather service said, and some of the suburbs east of Kansas City had recorded more than 10 inches. South-central Nebraska also saw heavy snow, with 9 inches near Eustis.

Many businesses, schools and universities closed, and city and state officials urged people to stay off the roads. The frigid temperatures — wind chills in the single digits — and wind gusts around 30 miles per hour produced a stinging, blinding, icy snow.

At least one death has been attributed to the storm, which began early Wednesday in some areas — a two-car crash Wednesday that killed a 19-year-old woman in southeast Nebraska.

Sharon Watson, a spokeswoman for the Kansas Division of Emergency Management, said: “This particular system is affecting pretty much the entire state of Kansas, and with a significant amount of snow throughout. It is unusual to see it affect the entire state and have this quantity of snow in one storm.”

The storm was particularly jarring to a region that has been drought stricken and has not seen this kind of snow in a long time.

The Kansas City area received just 8.4 inches of snow all of last year, 10 inches below normal. Three and a half weeks ago, the temperature reached 74 degrees.

Longtime Midwesterners said that what has been different in recent years is the region has not gotten the regular two- to four-inch snowfalls that were common during the winters of their youth.

“My grandkids’ sleds in the garage have been gathering dust,” Pat O’Neill, 60, said by telephone, adding that he was staring out of a window in his home at the hill where he and his wife met sledding decades ago. “This deep snow is nostalgic and welcome.”

But even by the standards of the old days, Thursday’s storm was brutal, residents and government officials said. And they insisted that this was not like a warmer region — say, Southern California — overreacting to a light dusting.

While the forecast for St. Louis, for instance, predicted at most 4 inches of snow on Thursday, city officials said the accumulation could reach as much as 7 inches if more snow than sleet ends up falling, said Maggie Crane, the communications director for Mayor Francis Slay.

“When we get snowstorms coming our way we’re always cautious about ice being in that forecast,” Ms. Crane said. “I think that’s why St. Louisans are a little more on guard when we have a snowstorm. For the most part, people are used to it.”

As of Thursday afternoon, there were relatively few power failures in Missouri — Ameren, one of the state’s major power providers, reported that just over 2,000 customers had lost power — thanks in part to less ice cover than expected.

For most of the region, the roads were the problem.

A nearly 100-mile stretch of Interstate 70 in central Kansas was closed on Thursday morning because a number of vehicles had slid off the road and tow truck availability was limited, Ms. Watson said. Hotels filled up quickly in western Kansas, where the snow began falling on Wednesday, as drivers abandoned their trips and found lodging for the night, Ms. Watson said. Officials in two towns, Quinter and WaKeeney, opened shelters to make up for the shortage of accommodations.

Gov. Sam Brownback of Kansas ordered all state offices closed on Thursday and the Legislature canceled its session.

For all the treacherous conditions caused by the snow, many in the region had reason to be happy — most notably, farmers. Enduring one of the worst droughts the country has ever seen, farmers were hopeful that the precipitation would provide some moisture to help their thirsty wheat crops spring up in the coming weeks and saturate the soil for the coming corn and soybean plantings.

“We can get excited about it,” said Richard Randall, who farms wheat, corn and sorghum in Scott City, Kan. “But we’re going to have to have more moisture, however it comes.”