January 12th 2013 heavy snow bands

Heavy Snow Bands Impact South-Central
and Southeast Kansas

January 12th, 2013

On the afternoon of Saturday, January 12th, a weak storm system moved across the plains. This storm system had the potential of causing a few inches of snow accumulation, mainly east of the Kansas Turnpike.

This storm system ended up being very interesting, producing only a few very narrow, yet intense bands of snow. These bands of snow lasted about 20 minutes at any one location, and caused the ground to go from being bare, to covered in snow. Accumulation reports received ranged from a few tenths of an inch to around one inch. The falling snow was so intense that it caused visibilities to be reduced to less than 1 mile at times. The reduction in visibilities and slick roadways from the new snow caused several vehicle accidents.

These heavy snowbands can be easily identified on the satellite and radar images below. The farthest west one, impacted locations from east Wichita, northeastward through Butler and Chase Counties. The second and more intense band impacted areas east of Arkansas City, northeastward through southeastern Butler County, and through Greenwood County.

While the heavy band of snow was impacting east Wichita near Kellogg and Rock Road , the sun was shining in West Wichita at the National Weather Service Office.

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Images

Satellite image above from Sunday afternoon January 13th, 2013 shows the multiple areas of snow that fell on Saturday afternoon. The western bands are very narrow and correspond to the heavy snow bands that moved across the area Saturday afternoon January 12th, 2013. See the radar image below.

Radar image at 4pm Saturday January 12th, 2013 showing the small, yet intense heavy snow bands that impacted South Central Kansas.

Radar animation from 3pm to 5pm Saturday January 12th, 2013 showing the heavy snowbands developing and diminishing. You can see that the bands of snow line up with the snow visible on satellite.