By TIM UNRUH

Salina Journal

As snow was piling up outside the Atwood Bowl & Fun Center on Tuesday night, there was no bowling and no fun inside.

"It's boring down here right now. There's nobody here," said worker Kaitlin Merz.

Atwood officially received 10 inches of snow as Mother Nature's latest storm rolled through northwest Kansas. Merz figured it was close to a foot by 6 p.m.

The storm made highways slick and snowpacked and closed many schools.

On Tuesday night, snow was falling in Salina, where the National Weather Service predicted 4 or more inches would accumulate by this morning.

With winds at 20 mph and gusting to 30, the concern was blowing and drifting snow, said Josh Boustead, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Topeka.

"That's going to make for a worse type of situation than we're seeing," he said.

On Tuesday evening, Boustead said, the snowfall was "rapidly expanding" in north-central Kansas. But by then, the snowfall was tapering off in northwest Kansas and skies were clearing, leaving folks in the Goodland area to brace for temperatures dipping to 3 degrees above zero, said Kelly James, weather service meteorologist in Goodland.

Snowfall amounts in northwest Kansas ranged from 2 to 3 inches in Hays to 5 inches in Norton and St. Francis, 6 inches in Hill City, 8.3 inches in Goodland and 10 inches in Atwood.

In Salina, Tuesday night school activities were postponed because of the inclement weather. It will remain cold today in Salina with lows this morning expected to be in the mid-teens.

Sheriff's dispatchers in northwest Kansas were reporting problems with motorists sliding off streets and highways, particularly Interstate Highway 70.

An Ellis County dispatcher reported up to 3 inches of snow in Hays.

A Thomas County dispatcher said he left Kansas City at 5:30 a.m. Tuesday and made the trip to Colby in 11 hours, roughly twice the normal travel time.

Along the way, he noticed 50 vehicles in the ditch -- 10 of them semitrailers -- including three in the Hays' area. There was blowing snow and the highway was iced over, he said. Visibility was about 60 yards.

n Reporter Tim Unruh can be reached at 822-1419 or by e-mail at tunruh@salina.com.

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