Heavy Snow — Sedgwick, Kansas

2011-02-08 to 2011-02-09 · Sedgwick, Kansas

Event narrative

Five to eight inches of snow fell across the county, with 8 inches recorded in the city of Wichita, Kansas. The heavy snow produced over 200 accidents across the county with 24 minor injuries being reported. Most of the accidents were cars sliding off the roadways due to excessive speed.

Wider weather episode

A potent upper level low pressure area across the central Rockies moved east across Kansas and Oklahoma on Tuesday, February 8th. At the same time, frigid Arctic air settled south across the Central Plains. A rather narrow, but strong corridor of lift developed out ahead of the approaching system early on Tuesday February 8th, resulting in a band of heavy snowfall, oriented west-northwest to east-southeast, across Central Kansas. This resulted in snowfall rates of 1 to 2 inches per hour during the late morning and early afternoon on Tuesday. The snow diminished to flurries on Tuesday night, but not before it dumped over a foot of snow across much of Central Kansas and a portion of the Flint Hills.

The strong area of mid-level lift associated with the upper level storm system gradually shifted south across South Central and Southeast Kansas on Tuesday night, February 8th. Since the lift was more transient and did not reside over any one location too long, snowfall totals were not as impressive as across Central Kansas, though still managing to range from 5 to 10 inches across South Central Kansas and Southeast Kansas.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 285155. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.