Event narrative (NOAA)
On January 3rd, a strong cold front surged south across Kansas & Oklahoma before stalling along/near the Red River during the afternoon of the 4th. A shallow layer of moist, sub-freezing air spread south over all but Southeast Kansas, as an 850-mb cold front, oriented in a southwest to northeast manner from the Oklahoma Panhandle to near Kansas City, teamed with an inverted 850-mb trof positioned over Western Kansas to enable much warmer, moisture-laden air to overrun the layer of sub-freezing air beneath.The result was what many consider to be the worst ice storm since 1982 to ravage all of Central & most of South-Central Kansas from the afternoon of the 4th thru the morning of the 5th, coating almost the entire warning area with 1/2 to 1 inch of ice. Although freezing rain was the primar
Other notable winter storm events in Kansas
Source: NOAA/NCEI Storm Events Database. Deaths and injuries are those NOAA classifies as direct. Damage is the reporting office's estimate at the time and is not inflation-adjusted. This is a catalogue record, not a forecast.