Kansas City braces for largest snow storm in four years

Meteorologists are tracking a band of snow, expected to blanket the metro.

A Winter Weather Advisory has been issued for counties both north and south of the Kansas City area. It runs from noon on Tuesday until Midnight on Wednesday.

By Tuesday afternoon, a band of snow will move into the Kansas City area. A full-fledged snowstorm could develop in the metro area by Tuesday evening.

Snow showers are expected to move in from the south during the mid-to-late morning and then spread into the Kansas City area throughout the afternoon and continue into the evening.

Snowfall totals between 1.5-inches and 2-inches are possible near Kansas City, with 2-inches to 3-inches possible south of Interstate-70. In Ottawa, KS, 5.2-inches of snow is expected.

Crews across the metro spent Monday checking their salt trucks and snow plows to make sure they are in good shape and ready to hit the streets Tuesday.

The city of Overland Park says they have about 7,000 tons of salt on hand right now and expect that to last the rest of the winter season. They ask drivers to give them plenty of room to work.

"Be patient with us. We haven't had a plowable event in really three years so this will be the first one in about three years. We will get the streets treated and we will make them safe for residents," Jeff Hunt said.

As a state, in 2017, Kansas used nearly 53,000 tons of salt and 3.5-million gallons of salt brine.

The state says they plan to redeploy their trucks as soon as the snow begins to fall.

Crews also ask that if possible drivers park off residential streets. If you must park on the street, they ask everyone to park on the same side of the street to give large plows more room to clear streets.

Officials are asking drivers not to crowd the plows and to stay back at least 100 feet. Multiple crashes between a vehicle and a plow have been reported in the metro since Sunday.

Kansas City crews continue treating and plowing operations until 7:30 p.m. Monday. On Tuesday, the city says bridge frost crews will deploy at 3:30 a.m., primary road crews pretreat roadways starting at 7:30 a.m. and neighborhood street crews will deploy at 10 a.m.

In Missouri, crews will apply 200 pounds of salt per mile and 25 gallons of salt brine per mile. Officials say they will cover the metro with 3,000 tons of salt.

Snowfall is expected to end shortly after Midnight on Wednesday.

Get prepared before it arrives by downloading the StormTrack5 Weather App. Click here to download it and stay up to date as the weather changes.