Winter Weather — Platte, Missouri

2017-01-13 to 2017-01-14 · Platte, Missouri

Event narrative

There was some minor icing on Friday night in advance of a more significant freezing rain event a couple days later. This event is not considered part of the bigger event due to almost 30 hours between observations of freezing rain late Friday January 13 until early Sunday morning when the more significant icing arrived. On Friday night there was a brief period of freezing rain that moved through the Kansas City Metro area. This icing cause area roads to be very slick. On Interstate 29 a van with 12 people on board ran off the road due to icy conditions at mile marker 20.8 at 12:18 am (Saturday January 14). The driver of the van, a 35 year old male, was not wearing a seat belt, was ejected from the rolling vehicle, and died at the scene. Three other passengers in the van were transported for moderate injuries, while 3 others had minor injuries that did not require medical attention.

Wider weather episode

Freezing rain started on Friday January 13 across portions of southern Kansas and southern Missouri. Freezing rain fell across a fairly narrow corridor on Friday night into Saturday morning across that area, causing icing to occur. After a mostly dry day on Saturday, throughout the day on Sunday the rain moved north through the Kansas City Metro area, but did not create much in the way of ice accumulations, with maybe .10 of ice at the most. By the time the rain moved into northern Missouri it started accumulating more ice. Across numerous counties in northern Missouri several spotters reported a quarter inch of ice. While the ice in the KC Metro area did not result in an official ice storm, there were still numerous vehicle accidents as a result of the light icing. On Friday night and Saturday night vehicle fatalities occurred. The first on Friday night occurred in Platte County near mile marker 20 on Interstate 29. The second fatality occurred in Nodaway county near Ravenwood. Both accidents were the result of icy road surfaces.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 666732. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.