Update Thursday 5:00 p.m. KCI remains closed, but officials report that first flights in and out are expected for 7 a.m. Friday. However, they are working to reopen the airport this evening.
In KCMO: “Phases I and II of the City’s Snow Ordinance remain in effect. As outlined in the Snow Ordinance, motorists parked on assigned Emergency Snow Routes face the possibility of vehicles being ticketed or towed. Vehicles without adequate tire tread that get stuck on a major thoroughfare can also be ticketed."
KCATA bus service remains suspended with hopes of service “tentatively scheduled to resume Friday morning.”
KP&L reports that the system has “held up well and only approximately 1,000 customers lost power today, mostly in the southern part of our service area.”
The City of Lawrence received approximately 7.5 inches of snow in a five-hour period. Now that the snow has slowed, crews will focus on plowing operations. Transit service is also canceled today.
Overland Park's two community centers, Matt Ross and Tomahawk Ridge, are closed and will reopen Friday morning at 5:30.
Update Thursday 3:00 p.m. The City of Kansas City, Mo. announced snow plowing will continue on arterial streets, but plowing of residential streets will stop at 7 p.m. Plowing is expected to resume at 6 a.m. Friday.
Update Thursday 1:50 p.m. Snow is letting up across the metro area, leaving some areas with around a foot of accumulation. Click here for hour-by-hour snow updates from KMBC.
Update Thursday 12:35 p.m. Snow continues to fall in the metro area. A winter storm warning is in effect until midnight Thursday (Friday morning). The storm system is expected to move out Friday. Meanwhile, the storm has brought much of the metro area to a standstill.
Update Thursday 11 a.m. Kansas City, Mo. Mayor Sly James has declared a state of emergency in response to the snow storm.
The city says crews are responding to the snow and reports 250 snow plows are running, but residents are being asked to stay off the streets and park cars in driveways or garages.
KCI Airport is closed.
Update Thursday 9:45 a.m. The snow arrived in Kansas City just after dawn and was falling at rates of up to three inches per hour. The snow is expected to continue into the early afternoon.
Update Thursday 7:09 a.m. KMBC's Joel Nichols said the snow will intensify during the morning hours, with snowfall rates as much as two inches per hour.
Many schools and institutions announced that they'll be closed Thursday. Click here for a complete list of school and institutional closings.
The Kansas City Star reports that Kansas state offices are shut down, and more than 70 flights scheduled for Thursday out of Kansas City International Airport have been canceled.
Update Thursday 3:49 a.m. By Wednesday afternoon, snow had already blanketed Wichita, Emporia and parts of western Kansas. KMBC's Brian Busby said that that was the first wave of the storm.
For a snow plow map of Kansas City, Mo., click here.
Update Wednesday 3:05 p.m. The National Weather Service says that winter storm warnings will go into effect at midnight Thursday morning for the metro area. The storm could bring in anywhere from six to ten inches of snow. The snowfall and accumulation will likely make Thursday "absolutely messy."
For MoDOT's weather-related road map, click here.
A hefty winter snowstorm is heading toward Kansas City and a sizeable adjacent portion of Kansas and Missouri.
The variables hadn’t settled in by late Tuesday, but it appears to forecasters that snow as deep as 15 inches or more may pile up into Thursday to far northeast Kansas and into Nebraska.
The earlier forecast from the National Weather Service had the prospect for ice accumulation via freezing rain, prominent around south Kansas City.
Now that’s changed to include some sleet into Thursday morning. But snow is the main feature, the first major winter storm for metro Kansas City in more than a year. The winter of 2012 was unusually mild.
Meteorologist Spencer Mell says the good news is that ice is reserved only for the Springfield, Missouri area.
Mell believes Kansas City will be spared the kind of ice that downs power lines, saying, “The system has evolved over model runs. It’s come in colder and colder with the system, so we’re not as concerned with the freezing rain over our area. It looks further south.”
A tricky forecast says Mell, with an expected 4 to 8 inches of snow a safe bet for Kansas City. Heaviest fall is anticipated on the north and west sides.
Mell expects snow will make driving difficult during Thursday morning driving time.
Another storm is expected Sunday night into Monday, according to the National Weather Service, but there is little certainty about that storm's path at this point.