Much-needed sunshine has helped to improve local driving conditions considerably Friday, however, local authorities are still cautioning drivers ahead of Christmas travel.
Within Emporia, major arterials are, for the most part, clear and passable with some snow cover and occasional slick spots. Meanwhile, residential collectors and side streets range from partially to fully covered at this time.
Emporia Public Works Director Dean Grant says crews treated early in the morning Friday and the abundance of sunshine also helped to warm up streets and clear the majority of ice and snow from roadways. Grant says refreezing is a concern between Friday night and Saturday morning, however, it will likely be limited despite negative wind chills.
That being said, Grant says drivers still need to be vigilant.
Countywide, road conditions are relatively clear with some occasional patches of ice and snow according to Lyon County Sheriff Jeff Cope. Cope says his office’s biggest concern has little to do with road conditions and more to do with the frigid cold.
Wind chill warnings areawide will begin at 6 pm and continue through much of Saturday morning.
3:30 pm Friday
Numbing wind chills continue across the KVOE listening area.
Wind chill warnings remain in effect until 1 pm areawide, and with good reason. Wind chills got as low as -32 in the daylight hours Thursday and stayed at -20 or below overnight. This is a colder wind chill reading since the brutal cold snap of February 2021, when the air temperature was colder — -14 versus -5 — but the wind chill dipped to -27 in last year’s event.
TV-13 meteorologist Doug Meyers says wind chills will improve, but it will be a gradual process.
In fact, wind chill advisories will affect all area counties starting at 6 pm Friday and continuing through much of Saturday morning. Lyon and most surrounding counties are clear as of 11 am Saturday. The exceptions, Chase and Greenwood counties, are done at 9 am Saturday.
When it comes to cold exposure, Newman Regional Health Hospitalist Adam Galindo tells KVOE News it doesn’t take long for frostbite to settle in.
Frostbite is skin freezing to the point where the tissue is damaged. In mild or moderate cases, the skin can recover — but significant or severe frostbite can easily lead to amputation so gangrene can be avoided.
Hypothermia, meanwhile, is when the body’s core temperature drops below where it should. Hypothermia starts when the core temperature drops from the average of 98.6 degrees to 95. Symptoms of mild hypothermia, including involuntary shivering and increasing heart rate, can develop in as little as 10 minutes. Symptoms can progress to disorientation, trouble speaking or walking and — ultimately — a coma or death when the body temperature drops below 82 degrees.
Residents need to layer their clothing, cover their extremities, avoid getting wet and avoid overexertion to limit their risk of both frostbite and hypothermia.
Emporia and Lyon County announced six warming stations, which opened for the first time Thursday and will reopen Friday:
*Emporia Police lobby. Pets will be welcome if the owner can control them.
*Lyon County Law Enforcement Center lobby. Pets will be welcome if the owner can control them.
*First Congregational Church. Hours are 9 am to 12:30 pm. Pets will be welcome if the owner can control them.
*First United Methodist Church. Hours are 8 am to 4:30 pm. Pets not allowed.
*Salvation Army. Hours are 9 am to 4 pm.
*Twelfth Avenue Baptist Church. Hours are 9 am to 5 pm. Pets not allowed.
Travel conditions improved slowly — with no help from the weather. Public Works Director Dean Grant says local travel conditions weren’t ideal because the high winds blew traction materials out of place. The cold temperatures also mean treatment materials won’t reach their full effectiveness until temperatures get above 15 degrees.
Major arterials and the highly-traveled residential collector streets have tracks developed, but residential streets, intersections, bridges and overpasses are still quite slick.
There was some drifting in Lyon County, but County Engineer Chip Woods says deputies did not call for assistance in removing drifts from county roads. The Emporia area got around 2 inches of snowfall.
Highway conditions are all either seasonal or partly covered as of 6 am Friday.
Thursday’s conditions were subpar basically all day, but the worst combination of snow, wind and cold was in the morning. Because of near-zero visibility, the National Weather Service Wichita office included Chase and Greenwood counties in snow squall warnings.
Power issues were scattered Thursday morning. Power has been restored to Evergy customers in the Reading area after an outage that developed before 3:30 am. Power was offline for several hours before it was restored. Also, a dozen Emporia businesses were without power after a failure in the Candlewood Drive area of town. Power was fully restored around 9 am. Roughly 60 customers lost power just east of Osage City. And better than 70 Evergy customers were offline after a pair of outages west of Reece in western Greenwood County.
Evergy District Service Center Manager Rolland Trahoon II says high winds were the likely cause for most outages along with galloping lines. He says additional small-scale outages lingered into the afternoon hours, however, the majority have been restored and crews will continue to work as needed throughout the extreme cold.
There are still a lot of schedule adjustments affecting the KVOE listening area Friday. Click here for updates on the KVOE.com Closings and Cancellations page provided by Bluestem Farm and Ranch Supply.
If you have schedule adjustments to report, whether they are closings, cancellations, postponements or delays, call KVOE at 620-342-1400, email kvoe@kvoe.com or message the Bluestem Farm and Ranch text line at 620-342-5863.
Be sure to stay with KVOE, KVOE.com and KVOE social media for updates this week. If you haven’t joined KVOE’s social media channels — Facebook and Instagram, both @kvoenews, and Twitter@kvoeam1400 — this would be a good time to do so for immediate information about weather and travel conditions, schedule adjustments and preparation tips.
