Between the evening of Saturday the 14th and the morning of Sunday the 15th, nearly this entire six-county North Central Kansas area saw up to a 12-hour period of light snow. This was a fairly low-impact event, as amounts in most spots only averaged 1-2, especially within the northern local counties of Phillips, Smith and Jewell.
Every event with a place to put it; 3 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 GID wrote it up.
Between the evening of Saturday the 14th and the morning of Sunday the 15th, nearly this entire six-county North Central Kansas area saw up to a 12-hour period of light snow. This was a fairly low-impact event, as amounts in most spots only averaged 1-2, especially within the northern local counties of Phillips, Smith and Jewell. In addition, winds were notably light, generally 5-10 MPH throughout. However, the southern row of counties (Rooks/Osborne/Mitchell) received a more widespread coverage of 2.5 to 4. Per several CoCoRaHS and official NWS cooperative observers, a few of the highest totals featured: 4 in Covert and nine miles east of Hunter, 3.8 at Natoma and 3 in Beloit.
Timing-wise, the first flakes flew on the evening of the 14th, but the majority of snow accumulated between 3-11 a.m. on the 15th while gradually ending from west-to-east. In the mid-upper levels, forcing was keyed by the passage of a few low-amplitude waves embedded within strong quasi-zonal flow. At the surface, the light winds stemmed from the local area residing within the southern/western periphery of an expansive high (central pressure around 1022 millibars) sliding southeastward from the eastern Dakotas into Iowa.
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 Hastings, NE wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Dec 14, 9:34 PM CST, 26 minutes earlier.
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</html>The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
3 winter weather. Local standard time, as filed.
A snowfall total of 2.8 inches was reported by a NWS coop observer four miles west-northwest of Plainville.
Storm total snow totals included 3.8 at Natoma and 4 at Covert (NWS coop observers).
Storm total snow totals included 3 at Beloit and 2.5 at Cawker City (NWS coop observers) and 4 nine miles east of Hunter (CoCoRaHS).
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Kansas in 2019Every state in 2019This day in weather historyWarnings in Kansas, December 2019
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 2026-10-01. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 860461, 860460, 860459.