Global Warming Clobbers Wichita, Kansas; All Flights Canceled; Highways Closed

Updates

Later, 8:54 pm: this storm has even made the front page of the LA Times --

A blizzard dumped mountains of swirling snow across parts of Texas and Oklahoma on Monday, then turned toward Kansas and other parts of the Midwest still reeling from a major storm last week.

Blizzard warnings and watches were posted for parts of Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma through Monday evening as high winds blew large accumulations of snow in a wide band through the Southwest and Midwest.

The National Weather Service also warned of fierce thunderstorms along the Gulf Coast.

Gulf Coast. Again.

Later, 4:48 pm: wow! How bad is it? Ask Amarillo.

A historic blizzard on pace to become the second-snowiest event recorded in Amarillo made travel nearly impossible Monday and left some motorists stranded as emergency crews struggle to reach them, the National Weather Service in Amarillo said.

Wind gusts have averaged between 50 and 60 mph, with hurricane-force gusts of 75 mph recorded at Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport, the weather service said.

Conditions won’t improve until the storm passes, and the weather service has extended a blizzard warning until 3 a.m. Tuesday.

The weather service said a Feb. 25 record of 17 inches of snow has blanketed Amarillo, breaking the previous record of 10 inches recorded in 1903.

Don't even get me started on global warming.

Later, 2:22 pm: just after posting the original post, I see another blogger used the same verb, "clobber" when describing the storm. A senior meteorologist at AccuWeather:

A blizzard already blasting the Texas Panhandle will continue to expand northeastward across Kansas and will reach northwestern Missouri into Monday night.

According to Expert Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski, "The second major snowstorm in less than a week will bring travel to a standstill. School, business and other daily activities may be disrupted for days in the region."

Whiteout conditions and extensive blowing and drifting snow were clobbering northwestern Texas Monday midday. Conditions were deteriorating over western Oklahoma and central Kansas.

Note: "clobber" was in the headline, not the story.

Original Post

The Wichita Eagle is reporting:

Heavy snowfall has reduced visibility to near zero in Wichita and grounded all flights into and out of Mid-Continent Airport.

Numerous highways in southwest and south-central Kansas were closed as the powerful winter storm unleashed snow and strong winds on the region.

“Driving conditions are hazardous and visibility is extremely low,” KDOT spokesman Kirk Hutchinson said in a prepared statement.

Heavy snow arrived in Wichita late Monday morning, though weather officials cautioned that the worst of the storm isn’t slated to arrive until early afternoon.

Depending on where the faux environmentalists have put their thermometers, February will go down as one of the colder Februaries. But, of course, it depends on where the thermometers have been placed.

Having said that, I don't know what the optimum average yearly temperature for Wichita is.

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2013/02/25/2690642/snow-storm-closing-highways-in.html#storylink=cpyBas