Blizzard — Barton, Kansas

2025-01-05 · Barton, Kansas

Event narrative

Great Bend Municipal Airport showed an increase in snow intensity in combination with the winds starting in the morning hours with blizzard conditions reported for about nine hours. Sustained northerly winds had speeds of 20 to 30 mph for this period. The peak wind gust was 39 mph. County 911 dispatch center confirmed the reports and relayed of hazardous travel due to whiteout conditions and drifting snow; some roadways were closed.

Wider weather episode

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.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1245199. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.