Blizzard in Sedgwick, Kansas

Precipitation transitioned to snow around 5AM which continued to fall through the day. Moderate to heavy snow with strong northwest winds led to reduced visibilities and blizzard conditions across the county starting at 7:30AM until mid day. Winds had sustained speeds of 20 to near 30 mph with gusts of 40 to 45 mph. Snow continued to fall until 4:30PM. The storm total snowfalls ranged from 3 to near 5 inches with the highest report of 4.5 inches at McConnell Air Force Base.

A powerful long duration winter storm moved into Kansas during the weekend of January 4th and 5th. The event started with freezing drizzle and drizzle; there were numerous slide offs across the state on the 4th. As the intensity of the precipitation increased, this freezing rain led to flat ice accumulations up to 0.66 which was reported in Russell.

Gradually colder air was ushered in with this system, and this transitioned the precipitation type to sleet then eventually snow. Embedded thunderstorms helped to enhance the accumulations and even produced some graupel. Strong northwest winds created blizzard conditions for much of Kansas. The highest snowfall accumulations occurred in north central and northeast Kansas with over a foot reported. A combination of the initial ice followed by blowing and drifting snow created dangerous travel conditions with most of the highways closed for several hours.