Full Notification

City of Kansas City, Mo., snow crews are preparing to respond to winter weather predicted in the greater Kansas City area this weekend, including dangerously cold wind chill temperatures, possibly the coldest Kansas City has experienced in 20 years.

According to the National Weather Service, Kansas City will experience light snow beginning Saturday, Jan. 4 afternoon through Sunday, Jan. 5 around noon. Local accumulations of 1-4 inches are possible. An extreme cold front will move into Kansas City on Sunday, Jan. 5. Below zero temperatures combined with a brisk north wind will create wind chills between -20 and -35 degrees overnight and into early Monday, Jan. 6 morning.

Residents needing refuge from the frigid weather are welcome to warm up in public buildings, such as the City’s 10 community centers, during regular business hours.. For a complete list of warming centers in Kansas City, please call the United Way at 211 or visit http://gis.dhss.mo.gov/Website/WarmingCenter/warmingCenter.html.

Please review the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s severe cold weather tips, which include information on hypothermia, frostbite, getting stranded in cold weather and more: http://www.bt.cdc.gov/disasters/winter/faq.asp. Please also review the City’s winter weather safety tips: http://kcmo.org/CKCMO/NewsArchives/120413B.

City snow crews assigned to primary/arterial routes will begin checking routes for slick spots on Saturday, Jan. 4 at 3:30 p.m., before snow starts falling, and will work around the clock. Residential snow crews will work in neighborhoods on Sunday, Jan. 5 from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

The City has approximately 6,400 lane miles of pavement in its street system. To keep traffic moving throughout the City during a winter weather event, the snow plan prioritizes plowing into two types of snow routes: primary/arterial routes and residential routes.

On primary and arterial routes, the City's Public Works, Parks and Recreation and Water Services departments collaborate on removing snow and ice from approximately 2,400 lane-miles of pavement and apply salt as needed. These crews plow curb-to-curb and work around the clock.

On residential snow routes, City crews using smaller trucks work 12-hour shifts during daytime hours to provide a passable lane by plowing and applying salt on intersections, hills and curves. As possible, crews will widen the passable lane, which may still have some snow pack due to low pavement temperatures.In the event of severe snow, cul-de-sacs and dead ends will be plowed after arterial, collector and through residential streets. This ensures that City crews may use their resources most effectively.

When snow depths exceed a couple of inches, residents are advised that parking cars off-street during snow plow operations greatly enhances the ability of snow plows to remove snow, especially in cul-de-sacs and dead end streets. Residents who must park on-street are asked to follow the below parking practice so snow crews can do their job.

-On streets that run north/south, please park on the west side of the street.

-On streets that run east/west, please park on the north side of the street.

When vehicles are parked on both sides of a narrow street, it may not leave enough space for a snowplow, and that street might get skipped.

Residents parking on signed Emergency Snow Routes should be prepared to find alternate parking locations to avoid vehicles being ticketed or towed.

Residents wanting to report slick spots or missed streets to the City’s 311 Call Center should wait 36 hours after snow has stopped falling. While crews are running assigned snow routes, it is assumed that all streets are slick. Only after snow has stopped falling and all snow routes have been run does the City’s 311 Call Center accept requests for slick spots and missed streets.

Please visit www.kcmo.org/snow to view the GPS snow plow map and other snow-related updates. To receive text and email notifications from the City, please sign up for the City’s Nixle notification system at www.kcmo.org/nixle. Residents may also sign up by texting their ZIP code to “888777.”