Winter Weather — Mitchell, Kansas

2025-01-04 to 2025-01-05 · Mitchell, Kansas

Wider weather episode

A large upper level trough was approaching Kansas from the Intermountain west. A surface high extended from Canada to the Plains and Midwest. Light freezing drizzle started moving across north central Kansas during the morning hours of January 4th with enhanced lift over the area. Freezing drizzle and freezing rain continued across north central Kansas through much of the day on January 4th with temperatures generally in the teens and 20s. This resulted in slick roads and hazardous travel. The changeover to snow occurred in the mid to late evening hours. Northerly winds increased during the evening of the 4th and into the 5th with gusts ranging from 25 to 35 MPH. The at times heavy snow across the eastern half of the area along with the gusty winds resulted in near zero visibility to whiteout conditions. The winds were driven by a pressure gradient from a strong surface high over the North Dakota/Canada border area and a strong surface low over central Oklahoma. The upper level low pressure system passed from southern Kansas to Missouri on Sunday January 5th. Snow continued across the area until around early evening on January 5th with high temperatures mostly in the low to mid-teens. Wind speeds across the area started gradually decreasing late in the afternoon into the evening.

North central Kansas received more/heavier snow than areas further north due to being closer to the upper low to the south. All highways, as well as Interstate 70, across the east-northeast half of Kansas were closed. The hardest hit counties of north central Kansas were Jewell, Osborne, and Mitchell. All 3 of these counties had blizzard conditions with winds gusting to around 35 mph and white-out conditions. Snow amounts in these counties ranged from 6 to 16 inches. Phillips County was the least impacted county in north central Kansas with snow amounts ranging from 1 to 4 inches.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1227957. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.