Wednesday, January 22, 2025
A major snowstorm pummeled Concordia and Cloud County over the weekend, beginning with sleet and freezing rain that turned into a foot of snow in the southern parts of Cloud County.
The massive storm produced dangerous levels of snow and ice across a 1,000-mile range, from central Kansas through the mid-Atlantic states, closing major freeways in seven states. Millions of people dealt with a multitude of problems created by the storm, including power outages during record-breaking wind chill, and dangerous road conditions.
Over 300,000 people were without power on Monday in Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, and West Virginia.
At least four people lost their lives over the weekend as a direct result of the storm.
Adam Jones, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Topeka, said Concordia officially recorded 11 inches of snow, while the southern half of Cloud County received 12-15 inches of snow.
The last recorded snowfall amount this large was on December 8, 2009.
The record for the most snowfall recorded on January 5 was 17.2 inches in 1924.
Snowplows and private contractors were out cleaning roadways and driveways by Saturday evening even as the snow continued to fall.
County road crews began clearing rural roads at 4 a.m. on Sunday morning as farmers tried to reach their cattle.
Surprisingly, with all the ice, there were few reports of power outages within the Concordia city limits.
Concordia Unified School District 333 and Cloud County Community College were closed on Monday and remained closed on Tuesday.
Many businesses also remained closed.
Major interstates such as Highway 81 and I-70 were closed on Sunday but reopened on Monday. Many state highways remained closed on Monday.
City of Concordia Public Works Director Shane Kisby said that his crews began treating the streets and sections of highways in town on Saturday afternoon.
“We started salting the emergency snow routes and the highways early Saturday afternoon when the sleet was coming down,” Kisby said.
By Sunday morning Kisby’s crews were working 12-hour shifts dealing with the major snowfall.
“We started early when it was still snowing to try and eliminate some of the bulk that would come later,” Kisby said. “We’re using one grader, three snow plows, and one skid loader. We got through most of the town by Monday afternoon.”
Plowing the streets creates large piles of snow in the center of the streets, which Kisby hopes to start removing by Tuesday morning, beginning with the emergency snow route accesses to facilities like the North Central Kanas Medical Center.
Kisby estimates that for just this weekend storm alone, his crews spread 48 tons of salt on the roads. “I don’t yet know how much snow we’ll have removed, but it’s a lot.”
