Snow snarls weekend traffic

3/11/2013

By MIKE CORN

mcorn@dailynews.net

Old Man Winter wasn't about to be upstaged by the biannual rite of the changing of the clocks.

So as a storm front approached extreme northwest Kansas, where it was supposed to focus its blizzard strength, the snow kept moving east and eventually dumped 3 inches in Hays, accompanied by strong winds.

Along the way, highways -- mostly in extreme western Kansas -- and Interstate 70 were shut down due to blizzard conditions, a lack of motel rooms or no room to park semis.

The Kansas Department of Transportation at 10 p.m. Saturday closed the westbound lanes on I-70 from Hays to the Colorado line.

KDOT opened the highway at 7:30 a.m. Sunday, only to close the westbound lanes of I-70 between Russell and Hays 15 minutes later.

I-70 reopened across Kansas about three hours later.

Snowfall amounts varied across northwest Kansas, but most were less than 4 inches.

At the Kansas State University Agricultural Research Center south of Hays, snowfall amounted to 3 inches of wet snow, melted down to 0.44 of an inch of moisture.

Osborne picked up 3 inches of snow, while Goodland reported just shy of 4 inches.

Quirky as the storm was, there was small hail near Esbon in Jewell County and thunder preceded snow in the Ellis County area Saturday night.

Snow isn't uncommon in March, and 3 inches isn't even enough to fit on the record books at Hays.