Blizzard — De Kalb, Missouri

2018-11-25 · De Kalb, Missouri

Event narrative

Blizzard conditions started after a few hours of lightly to moderately falling snow. Once the heavy snow arrived winds gusted up to 46 mph for nearly 4 hours, creating whiteout conditions , officially measured by the ASOS at nearby KLWD as sub-quarter mile for that duration. Despite the heavy impacts from this system affecting Thanksgiving weekend return traffic, no serious injuries occurred from this event.

Wider weather episode

An extremely early season blizzard impacted most of northern and central Missouri on November 25, 2018. The snowstorm was more indicative of a storm that would affect the area in the deep winter, as opposed to the middle to late part of autumn. The storm brought between 6 and 8 inches of snow across far northern Missouri, with 4 to 6 inches across the Kansas City Metro area, and along a good portion of the I-70 corridor through western and central Missouri. Further separating this storm from other typical winter storms was the strong winds that accompanied the heavy snow. Most locations through the region experienced winds in excess of 35 mph at times during the storm. The strongest wind gusts came across northeast Kansas and northwest Missouri, where 50-60 mph winds were recorded in nearby Wyandotte County (Kansas) and Leavenworth County (Kansas) and at Kansas City International Airport.

This snowstorm came exceptionally early in the winter season. Just how historical was this event? Here is some perspective.

Typical Novembers bring around 1.2 of snow each season, however...

Only 7 of the previous 20 Novembers have had accumulating snow in Kansas City.

The 5.8 of snow broke the record for snowiest November 25 in Kansas City history. The previous record was 3.7, which occurred in 1895.

The 7.6 of snow recorded in Kansas City through November 25 ranks 2nd all time for snowiest Novembers in Kansas City History (Going back to 1888), The snowiest

November in KC history came in 1923, when 9.1 of snow fell during the month.

The 5.8 of snow recorded in Kansas City for November 25 was the 2nd snowiest individual day for the month of November. November 29, 1923 brought 9.1 of snow to Kansas City.

Since 2004, no blizzard warnings had been issued for the Kansas City Metro area in the month of November, until this event.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 793849. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.