Winter Weather — Miami, Kansas
2019-02-05 · Miami, Kansas
Event narrative
Per the St. Joseph Post: One person died in an accident just before 11 a.m. Tuesday in Miami County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2002 Chevy Silverado driven by Dennis J. Gentry, 64, Mound City, was southbound on U.S. 169 North of 355th Street.
The vehicle was traveling too fast for road conditions. The driver lost control of the pickup as it crossed the bridge. The pickup traveled off the roadway on the left, struck the bridge. reentered the roadway, slid sideways and overturned.
Gentry was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to Frontier Forensics. He was not wearing a seat belt, according to the KHP.
Link to the story: http://www.stjosephpost.com/2019/02/05/kansas-man-dies-after-pickup-traveling-too-fast-hits-bridge-overturns/ .
Wider weather episode
A prolonged freezing drizzle and freezing rain event impacted all of eastern Kansas and western and central Missouri from February 5 until February 7. While the bulk of the precipitation fell overnight February 6, into the morning of February 7 the higher impacts appeared to come on February 5, when freezing drizzle caused roads to become slick. In some areas the roads were completely impassible, and numerous injury vehicle accidents occurred. One fatality was caused by the icy roads on February 5 in Miami County.
Without any notable break in the freezing precipitation the ice continued to form on trees and power lines through Wednesday February 6, resulting in most locations seeing around 1/8 to 1/4 of ice through Wednesday afternoon. On Wednesday night heavy rain and sleet moved into the area, and added to the already robust ice amounts. With some modest instability in the atmosphere many of these storms produced lightning, a rare occurrence! One storm did produce some quarter-sized hail near Clinton, MO. By the end of the event almost all locations within the Ice Storm Warning (which was issued Wednesday afternoon - 2/6) received around 1/4 to 1/2, with some of the higher totals in Johnson County, MO approaching .60.
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 795687. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.