A large winter storm dumped anywhere from 6 to as much as 14 inches of snow across much of eastern Kansas. The bulk of the snow fell during February 4th spreading from the southwest to the northeast during the pre-dawn hours of February 4th.
Every event with a place to put it; 22 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS TOP wrote it up.
A large winter storm dumped anywhere from 6 to as much as 14 inches of snow across much of eastern Kansas. The bulk of the snow fell during February 4th spreading from the southwest to the northeast during the pre-dawn hours of February 4th. The snow was steady and became heavy at times. The snow ended from west to east after sunset on the 4th and lingered just past midnight on the 5th across extreme eastern Kansas. The heaviest snow band fell roughly along I-70 from Salina east through Manhattan through Topeka and into west Kansas City. Many of those areas received 10-14 inches of snow. The 24 hour snow totals ranked in the top 5 in many of the cities mentioned above. Impacts were felt in travel especially late on February 4th as strong north winds caused blowing and drifting.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Topeka, KS wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Feb 3, 11:43 PM CST, 2 hours 17 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TOPEKA KS 1143 PM CST Mon Feb 3 2014 ...Update to aviation forecast discussion... .SHORT TERM...(This Evening through Wednesday) Issued at 317 PM CST MON FEB 3 2014 Strong storm system remains on track to impact the region tonight into least least Wednesday morning. Overall, models showing similar large scale solutions but smaller scale differences and questions on just how much snow will fall remain. Recent water vapor imagery showing upper trough entering southern Arizona and become less positively tilted with time. Surface winds beginning to back in response to lowering pressures in eastern New Mexico and West Texas with dewpoints only in the teens. Some breaks in the clouds this evening and still lighter winds should allow temps to fall into the lower 20s...with little chance for much warming for many days to come. A band of elevated frontogenesis is still anticipated over northwestern portions of the area this evening, but this occurs in a still rather mid and lower troposphere and there are varying ideas of how long this will last and how much if any snow will fall. Have left small chances in for the possibility of light accumulations. Better forcing begins after midnight as the upper trough swings into the Southern Plains and strong 1.5 PV pressure advection aloft and mid/upper Q-G forcing pushes in. This high level forcing seems to be the primary means of precipitation generation for the bulk of this event. There are still some areas of moderate frontogenesis and conditional symmetric instability, but much of this is above 12000 ft AGL and in this case above the prime dendritic growth zone. There is even some suggestion of convective instability in east central Kansas, but this is based even higher. Overall, the stronger forcing and better instability is in the south and east, to the northwest of the dry slot and in better deep-layer moisture. From a large-scale standpoint, the system does not quite fit the conceptual model of a heavy snow-producing storm, but with precip likely starting before dawn for most locations, peaking through the mid-morning to mid-afternoon afternoon hours, and finally ending late in the night as a weak TROWAL passes, it is a rather long-duration event. With this in mind, am not quite as confident on the higher end of amounts, particularly over north central Kansas, especially with several hours of compaction taking place during the falling snow. Still appears winds will increase in the afternoon and overnight hours, causing blowing drifting of the fresh snow, but speeds do not suggest blizzard levels at this point. Could see the need for an Advisory into Wednesday morning for this drifting potential, as well as for wind chills. Vertical motion steadily ends Tuesday night, and with west to north winds aloft drying the mid and upper levels, believe any accumulations will end by dawn, but could see some flurries squeezed out of the low cloud in continued cold air advection Wednesday. .LONG TERM...(Wednesday Night through Monday) Issued at 317 PM CST MON FEB 3 2014 Wednesday night very cold arctic air will settle over eastern Kansas as a 1040 mb high pressure settles over the Central Plains. Bitterly cold temperatures from 6 to 11 below zero are expected. Wind chill readings by sunrise Thursday are expected to to be in the 19 to 24 below zero range as winds will average around 5 mph making for a bitterly cold morning. On Thursday a broad upper trough will move into the Rockies from the Great Basin with a zonal to southwest flow across the Plains. Models suggest that some weak shortwaves will eject out of the base of the trough and into the Southern and Central Plains. Some weak isentropic lift develops Thursday night mainly across southern Kansas. Some light snow will be possible Thursday afternoon and then continue into Friday as another wave moves across the Plains. Friday night the isentropic lift increases in the 275K to 285K layer ahead of another shortwave ejecting out of the trough and across the region. With better ascent so will increase pops slightly over the previous forecast. The main upper trough move out across the Southern Plains Saturday and Saturday night. Increased precipitation chances slightly for Saturday. Sunday and Monday dry and cold air will move into eastern Kansas with highs in the teens to lower 20s with lows in the single digits Monday morning. && .AVIATION...(For the 06Z TAFs through 06Z Tuesday Night) Issued at 1136 PM CST MON FEB 3 2014 Light snow should begin to develop at the terminals by 8Z. The snow will begin to increase in intensity after 10z and heavy snow will develop across the terminals during the mid and late morning hours and last through the most of the afternoon hours. The snow should begin to taper off through the evening hours. The stratus ceilings will gradually lower to MVFR after 8Z, then IFR and LIFR as the tempo of the snow increases. Visibilities will be in the 1/2SM to 1/4 SM mile range through most of the days. Even when the snow becomes light this evening...blowing snow may keep visibilities to around 1SM. Ceilings should rise to MVFR once the moderate to heavy snow moves east of the terminals this evening. && .TOP WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... WINTER STORM WARNING until 6 AM CST Wednesday FOR KSZ008>012- 020>024-026-034>040-054>056-058-059. && SHORT TERM...65 LONG TERM...53 AVIATION...Gargan
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TOPEKA KS 335 PM CST MON FEB 3 2014 KSZ008>012-020>024-026-034>040-054>056-058-059-042145- REPUBLIC-WASHINGTON-MARSHALL-NEMAHA-BROWN-CLOUD-CLAY-RILEY- POTTAWATOMIE-JACKSON-JEFFERSON-OTTAWA-DICKINSON-GEARY-MORRIS- WABAUNSEE-SHAWNEE-DOUGLAS-LYON-OSAGE-FRANKLIN-COFFEY-ANDERSON- 335 PM CST MON FEB 3 2014 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR EAST CENTRAL...NORTH CENTRAL AND NORTHEAST KANSAS. .DAY ONE...THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT. SNOW MAY BEGIN TO DEVELOP IN NORTH CENTRAL KANSAS LATE THIS EVENING...AND BECOME WIDESPREAD ACROSS THE ENTIRE AREA AFTER MIDNIGHT. THE SNOW WILL INTENSIFY CLOSER TO SUNRISE WITH UP TO TWO INCHES OF ACCUMULATION POSSIBLE BY DAWN. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...TUESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY. MODERATE TO AT TIMES HEAVY SNOW IS EXPECTED THROUGH ALL OF TUESDAY...GRADUALLY DECREASING IN INTENSITY AFTER 4 PM...AND COMING TO AN END BY SUNRISE WEDNESDAY. WIDESPREAD SNOWFALL TOTALS OF 5 TO 9 INCHES ARE EXPECTED BY WEDNESDAY MORNING...WITH A FEW HIGHER AMOUNTS POSSIBLE. WINDS WILL INCREASE THROUGHOUT THE DAY ON TUESDAY...WITH GUSTS GREATER THAN 30 MPH EXPECTED TUESDAY EVENING THROUGH WEDNESDAY MORNING. THE COMBINATION OF WIND AND SNOW WILL CAUSE REDUCED VISIBILITY AND SIGNIFICANT BLOWING AND DRIFTING OF THE SNOW TUESDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH WEDNESDAY MORNING. TEMPERATURES WILL ALSO BECOME BITTERLY COLD...AND WIND CHILLS OF 13 TO 20 DEGREES BELOW ZERO ARE EXPECTED NORTH AND WEST OF THE KANSAS TURNPIKE TUESDAY NIGHT INTO MUCH OF WEDNESDAY. WIND CHILLS MAY BE EVEN COLDER WEDNESDAY NIGHT INTO THURSDAY MORNING...RANGING FROM 15 TO 24 DEGREES BELOW ZERO ACROSS THE ENTIRE AREA. THE CHANCE FOR ACCUMULATING SNOW RETURNS LATE THIS WEEK...MAINLY IN THE FRIDAY THROUGH SATURDAY PERIODS. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION WILL NOT BE NEEDED THROUGH TONIGHT.
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
22 winter storm. Local standard time, as filed.
Reports of 5 to 6 inches of snow along with a light glaze of ice were received from across Anderson County. The heaviest snow occurred across the northwest half of the county. The CoCoRaHS report was received from Garnett.
Snow amounts of 6 to 8 inches were common across Clay County from this storm. Clay Center received 7.0 inches from this storm.
Snow amounts of 6 to 8 inches were common across Cloud County from this storm. Concordia received 7.0 inches from this storm.
Snow amounts of 6 to 8 inches were common across Coffey County from this storm. Gridley received 7.1 inches from this storm.
Snow amounts of 8 to 12 inches were common across Dickinson County from this storm. Enterprise received 11.8 inches from this storm where Herington measured 8 inches.
Geary County received 7 to 10 inches of snow from this storm. A CoCoRaHs observer measured 7.5 inches of snow 2 miles southwest of Junction City.
Lyon County received 5 to 7 inches of snow with the heaviest across the northern half of the county. Neosho River measured 6.5 inches.
White City observer measured 8 inches. CoCoRaHs observer 2 miles east of Herington measured 10.5 inches in Morris County.
Pomona Lake observer measured 9 inches and the Melvern Lake observer measured 10 inches of snow from this storm. Osage County received widespread 8 to 10 inches of snow.
Ottawa County received 6 to 8 inches of snow from the storm. Observer at Minneapolis measured 6 inches while CoCoRaHs observer measured 7.2 inches 5 miles northwest of Ada.
Wabaunsee County may have received the heaviest snows from this storm across the area. Eskridge COOP report measured 15.5 inches while Alta Vista measured 12.6 inches of snow from the storm.
Snow amounts of 8 to 10 inches were common across Brown County from this storm. Hiawatha received 8.6 inches from this storm.
Douglas County received 8 to 12 inches of snow with this storm. A CoCoRaHs observer 2 miles northwest of Lawrence measured 12.1 inches of snow with this storm.
Franklin County received 6 to 10 inches of snow from this storm. Ottawa COOP observer measured 9 inches of snow while the Lane observer reported 6.1 inches.
Observer in Wamego measured 9.5 inches. Much of the county received 9 to 12 inches of snow from this storm.
The southern half of Riley County received 10 to 12 inches of snow from the storm. Kansas State University COOP report measured 11.2 inches of snow from this storm.
Much of Shawnee County received 10 to 12 inches of snow with some measurements of 13 inches across the county. The NWS Topeka official measurement was 13 inches of snow from the storm.
Jackson County received 8 to 12 inches of snow from this storm. A CoCoRaHs observer 5 miles southwest of Mayetta measured 11.3 inches of snow.
Blue Rapids observer measured 7 inches of snow. Marysville COOP observer measured 6 inches of snow from this storm.
Jefferson County received 8 to 12 inches of snow from this storm. Lecompton COOP observer measured 10.5 inches of snow.
Bailyville observer measured 6 inches of snow from this storm.
Much of Washington County received 6 to 10 inches of snow from this storm with the heaviest snow across the southeast half of the county. COOP report from Washington measured 7.0 inches.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Kansas in 2014Every state in 2014This day in weather historyWarnings in Kansas, February 2014
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 486654, 486660, 486663, 486674, 486675, 486705, 486720, 486723, 486725, 486727, 486732, 486659, 486676, 486677, 486729, 486730, 486731, 486706, 486722, 486719, 486724, 486734.