Ice Storm — De Kalb, Missouri

2019-02-07 · De Kalb, Missouri

Event narrative

While light freezing drizzle occurred off and on February 5, the bulk of the freezing rain fell during the overnight period on February 6 into February 7. Over the course of the event DeKalb County received approximately a quarter inch of ice accumulation. Numerous vehicle accidents occurred area-wide and minor tree damage occurred.

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. At least two fatalities were caused by the icy roads on February 5, in Lafayette County when a vehicle skidded off the road due to ice. A semi trailing the vehicular accident then impacted the vehicle, killing two of the four occupants. The MHP police report is linked here: https://www.mshp.dps.missouri.gov/HP68/AccidentDetailsAction?ACC_RPT_NUM=190068843 . Aside from those two accidents, there have been numerous injury accidents, mostly resulting in minor injuries, with a handful of moderate to serious injuries. Highway 7 just north of Pleasant Hill was closed for several hours on Tuesday evening because a MODoT salt truck among other vehicles impacted the guard rail just north of town.

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 807937. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.