Travel conditions aren’t completely back to normal after a thin glaze of wintry precipitation Christmas Night, but conditions improved a lot Monday and should continue improving Tuesday.
Emporia’s major city streets had a lot of improvement through the day as temperatures climbed to the low 20s with abundant sunshine. The more heavily-traveled residential streets also improved, and there was a fair amount of improvement on the side streets that weren’t totally shaded. Side streets that didn’t get a lot of sunshine remained icy. Having said that, local travel conditions improved to the point where Emporia Police ended special reporting procedures for non-injury crashes by early Monday afternoon.
Lyon County Deputy Doug Stump area highways are now largely clear.
There are some seasonal driving conditions, meaning isolated icy patches, on Interstate 35 east of the Kansas Highway 130 junction, US Highway 50 west of Saffordville, US 75 south of BETO Junction and Kansas Highway 177 south of Strong City.
Conditions Tuesday are in sharp contrast to Sunday night, when numerous non-injury slideoff wrecks and a handful of reported injury wrecks developed areawide right after the wintry mix began, and Monday morning, when temperatures went from 35 to 23 in an hour — causing another round of widespread non-injury wrecks areawide.
Travel conditions will improve again Tuesday as highs get to 40 degrees with sunshine and occasionally breezy south winds. Any snow left over from Thursday will likely be gone by Wednesday as highs get to 50 degrees.
