KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - Temperatures took a nose dive in Missouri on Sunday after freezing rain blanketed roads with ice, causing scores of accidents including some fatalities.
The National Weather Service issued a wind chill advisory for Missouri where wind yanked temperatures as low as 24 below. The weather service said anyone headed outside - including fans headed to Arrowhead Stadium for the Kansas City Chiefs’ game against Tennessee - should dress accordingly and take extra care to cover exposed skin to avoid frostbite and hypothermia.
“Temperatures this morning plummeted,” said Jared Leighton, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Pleasant Hill. The temperatures are low, but they didn’t set any records, he said. He said temperatures Sunday included minus 16 in northern Missouri, minus 14 at Leavenworth, Kansas, and minus 9 at Kansas City International Airport.
A “gentle warmup” is expected by Monday, he said.
“It’s still going to be rather cold, but when you start with minus 9 anything is going to feel warm,” he said. Today “we’ll struggle to get out of the single digits. We might get to 10 degrees today.”
At least three deaths in Missouri were blamed on icy roads late Friday after a treacherous mix of snow and freezing rain blasted much of the state. Several more accidents were reported Saturday as more icy rain and snow hit the state. Highways remained partly covered by midmorning Sunday, and officials were still urging residents to avoid travel.
“There are a lot of stalled vehicles out there,” Markl Johnson, a spokesman for the Missouri Department of Transportation, told The Kansas City Star. “That’s an indication that people are getting out without vehicles properly maintained. The temperature the way it is will weaken a battery a great deal.”
In neighboring Kansas, the Transportation Department said roads were still snow-covered Sunday, but conditions had improved from Saturday when several accidents were reported there.
Kimberly Qualls, a spokeswoman for the Kansas Department of Transportation, said crews were treating the roads with a heavier layer of salt, and combining that with the traffic and sunshine, the hope was to melt some of the snow, despite the “brutal insane temps that are out there.”
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