More storm expected today

By ERIN MATHEWS

Salina Journal

School officials in several northwest Kansas counties checked the weather forecast and opted to leave the buses parked Friday, although in some areas, the worst of the storm wasn't expected to hit until today.

Greg Guillot, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Goodland, said that Goodland ended up with about five inches of snow -- probably enough to cancel school, except that students already were out for spring break.

"I hated it when that happened when I was a kid," he said. "I was already off. It was a waste of a good snow day."

But in Sharon Springs, where an estimated five to six inches of snow fell and the wind piled it into drifts, the students did get a snow day. High school junior Taylor Sprinkle took advantage of the day off from school as an unexpected opportunity to catch up on sleep.

For students in Salina, where less than an inch of snow dusted windshields and lawns Friday morning, it was back to the books as usual. But the area wasn't expected to escape the storm -- Saline, Russell, Lincoln and Ellsworth counties remain in a winter storm warning until 7 a.m. today. One to three more inches of snow and winds gusting to 43 miles per hour were predicted for overnight, with a slight chance of more this morning.

By Friday evening, multiple vehicles were reported sliding into ditches along interstate highways, which were snow-packed and icy in spots near Salina.

Conditions were worse earlier in the day in other parts of Kansas.

One person was killed and two were injured in a crash in Marion County Friday afternoon, the first fatality associated with the winter storm.

According to the Kansas Adjutant General's Department, the crash occurred at the intersection of 120th and Indigo roads, about seven miles south of Hillsboro.

The Marion County Sheriff's Office could provide no additional information Friday evening.

Marion was one of four counties named in a disaster declaration Friday because of the storm; the others were Butler, Harvey and Cowley.

In southwest Kansas, where the storm was the strongest, as much as 19 inches of snow was reported four miles east of Ulysses, and snow was still coming down. The Adjutant General's Department urged Kansans to avoid travel, as much of the state was affected by blizzard conditions, which forced numerous road closures and resulted in multiple traffic accidents, especially in the southwest part of the state.

Northwest Kansas mostly escaped the heaviest snowfalls associated with the storm, with totals of one to six inches of snow reported in the region, according to the National Weather Office in Goodland.

Students blessed with a day off thanks to the storm took advantage of the unexpected gift.

Sprinkle, 16, said she woke up at 12:15 p.m. and accepted a "friend request" from a fellow student who used her day off to set up a new account on Facebook. Then Sprinkle said she began working on plans for the entertainment for the upcoming junior-senior prom.

"It's a secret, because none of the other kids get to know in our class," she said.

The regional music contest, which had been scheduled for today in Oberlin, was canceled. Sprinkle had planned to play her clarinet and perform with a singing group.

Sheriff's department dispatchers in other parts of northwest Kansas reported one to three inches of blowing snow. The heaviest snowfall was anticipated farther south. In Dodge City, seven to 11 inches was predicted Friday with high winds and another two to four inches overnight.

Gove County Sheriff Allan Weber said his area had received about two inches of snow and a lot of wind.

"We don't have the 20-foot-high snow drifts like they were talking about in Denver," he said.

In Colby, high school freshman Justin Slavens knows how to make the most of a snow day.

After the schools let out at 2 p.m. Thursday with an announcement that there would be no school Friday, Slavens began inviting friends for a sleep-over. He ended up staying up until 2 a.m. Friday with four friends watching college basketball, playing dodgeball and eating a lot of food, he said.

He had invited more friends, but "they chickened out because of the weather," Slavens said.

For an adrenaline rush, Slavens and freshmen Dallan Oregon and Jordan Rasmussen and sophomores Andrew Ketchum and Spencer Tubbs decided to do something new in the falling snow.

"It seemed fun to play basketball in our underwear, but it didn't work," he said. "It was cool for the first two minutes."

He said the boys might try disc golfing in their underwear later but, if they did, they would definitely wear shoes.

n Reporter Erin Mathews can be reached at 822-1415 or by e-mail at emathews@salina.com.

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Termite says....
Go for it guys. It will be cold & u will have a good cold afterwards to remind u of how stupid it was to play basketball in ur whitie tidies but at least it will be fun. P.S. Please wear tennis shoes so u dont get frost bite on ur feet too. LOL
3/28/2009

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