NASHVILLE: Steadily falling snow — punctuated by bursts that occasionally cut visibility to less than a mile — blanketed Wichita and much of Kansas on Thursday night and Friday.
The storm prompted numerous schools to close for the day, including Wichita’s public and parochial schools, as well as most suburban districts.
Nearly a foot of snow fell in parts of central and southwest Kansas. Reports of up to 6 inches were common in the northern half of Wichita and Sedgwick County, while the southern half of the city and county reported up to 4 inches.
Nearly 8 inches was reported north of El Dorado in Butler County and 7 inches west of Andale.
“That band bisected Wichita” and spread north of the city, National Weather Service meteorologist Robb Lawson said. “It was almost as if somebody just drew it in there.”
Hutchinson reported up to 8 inches, while southeast Kansas could expect at least 5 inches by storm’s end late Friday, forecasters said.
WeatherData president Mike Smith called it “a nice, medium-sized snowstorm, which is about what we expected.”
The snow day gave thousands of students an unexpected three-day weekend, but Wichita public school principals and other district employees still showed up for work.
Cynthia Rissell, principal at Pleasant Valley Elementary School in north Wichita, treated her office staff and others required to work with a slow cooker full of homemade chili Friday.
“It’s just kind of a nice treat on a cold day,” Rissell said. “We had a few guys from the School Service Center here installing clocks today, too, so they got to enjoy some chili for lunch.”
Part of a principal’s job on snow days is to look out for children who accidentally show up for school, unaware of the cancellation, and make sure they get home safely.
Several principals said the days also provide a chance to catch up on projects away from the hubbub of a normal school day.
“It’s a nice little work day to get things cleared off my desk that I haven’t had time for,” Rissell said.
Among the many cancellations Friday was the meal deliveries by Meals on Wheels. An official with Senior Services of Wichita, which runs the program, said many volunteers are senior citizens who were unable to get out and around in the snow.
The Kansas Humane Society closed, but organizers behind the monthly Final Friday art crawl planned to go ahead with most of the evening’s events.
Wichita real estate agent Becky Medicus didn’t let Friday’s storm keep her from working.
“I’m going to show three houses today,” she said. “I figure if people are still game and they’re up for it, I am, too.”
She said she doesn’t like cold weather, “but the snow is fun…. As long as you don’t get too close to the car in front of you and you maintain a safe speed, you’re going to be OK.”
And a soft white frosting on houses and lawns can boost their appeal in bleak winter months, she said. “They do look very nice in the snow.”
The storm hit other parts of the southern Plains hard.
Nearly a foot of snow was reported in Gray County in southwest Kansas, and the Quivira National Wildlife Refuge in central Kansas reported 10 inches by 9 a.m.
“Travel is not recommended on the refuge, and is especially risky for passenger cars and other vehicles with low clearance,” refuge ranger Barry Jones wrote for a Kansas State University Listserv.
About 7 inches of snow fell in Dodge City and St. John, and 6 inches in Kinsley and Larned.
About 151,000 customers in Oklahoma were without power late Friday because of widespread heavy ice that was knocking down power lines.
The storm left 13 inches of snow in the northern Texas Panhandle, where nearly all of I-40 from the Texas-Oklahoma line to New Mexico was closed.
“In some places, as far you can see there are hundreds of utility poles on the ground,” said Andrea Chancellor, spokeswoman for Public Service Co. of Oklahoma.
She said it could be five days before electricity is restored to all customers.
A 70-year-old Ada woman was killed and her husband was hospitalized in critical condition after a propane tank explosion. Ada Assistant Fire Chief Robby Johnson said the couple apparently were using propane heaters to warm the house after the power went out.
The snow storm was expected to shift east today toward eastern Arkansas, Tennessee and North Carolina.
The sun is expected to break through in the southern Plains, with highs in the mid- to upper 20s in Oklahoma and Kansas.
Sunday may see the thermometer top the freezing mark in Wichita under sunny skies, forecasters say.
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