The area of expected impactful snow has been expanded north for this weekend.
The National Weather Service in Wichita has expanded the winter storm watch issued earlier this morning for southern parts of south central Kansas to include more of central Kansas, including Barton, Harvey, Marion, McPherson, Reno and Rice counties. This watch will be in effect from noon Friday until 6 AM Sunday.
The Dodge City National Service Office has also expanded the winter storm watch to include an additional row of counties to the north, including Hodgeman, Pawnee and Stafford.
Snow is now expected to develop across the region Friday afternoon, and continue into late Saturday night. Forecasters are now projecting total accumulations of between four and seven inches by the time the snow ends.
An extreme cold watch has also been issued for much of central Kansas from 6 AM Friday into Monday morning, for wind chills that could reach -20 at times.
The polar air mass responsible for all of this is currently expected to begin moving through the area Thursday evening. Low temperatures through the weekend will be in the single digits above and below zero, with Saturday’s high temperature not expected to get out of the single digits.
