Our rain/sleet storm has started with many areas reporting sleet now after a period of rain...and now that the sleet has started we'll be fighting this for quite some time. Eventually during the afternoon a transition to snow will occur. For some, it'll happen earlier, for others not till later this PM and for areas farther SE of KC, may not happen at all.

The latest model data is supporting a wet system regardless. With liquid amounts equivalent to close to 1 to almost 2" on the S/SE side of the metro.

We should start to see than transition to snow, from north to south between 3-6PM...the sleet should fall pretty hard and accumulate and then it should be topped be a couple+ hours of heavy snowfall. Total accums should range from little to none towards the SE (Sedalia to Clinton to Butler to Paola) to 1-4" from S through North across the metro up towards KCI....to perhaps 4-8" along the 36 Highway corridor region. Some locations will alternate along the I-70 corridor through 3PM or so with sleet and rain.

Temperatures will go nowhere today, and may actually drop off a few degrees. KCI now is at 32 (9AM) while Olathe is at 36 and even Olathe is reporting decent sleet right now. Some rumbles of thunder were reported earlier, particularly down towards the south of KC.

There are some tricks up the sleeve of this storm system I think, which is not surprising when a region lies on the edge of heavy rain/sleet and snow. The area that may get surprised, perhaps, with some extra snow would be actually on the SE side of the metro, even closer to the 850 mb low that will be moving through the region.

There should be a quick cutoff to the precip from KC southwards sometime this evening. So the window for the heavy snow aspect of the storm for KC is relatively short. Should we switch over a bit quicker, lets say it's snowing hard sometime before 3PM, then accums will be higher, as some areas may see a period of 1"+ snowfall rates per hour should things fall together in the right way.

A Winter Storm Warning is in effect from essentially the Metro northwards to almost the IA border. A few counties in the far NW part of the state are under a Winter Weather Advisory.

Cold NNE winds of 15 to 25 MPH will contribute to the nastiness of the day, especially as the afternoon goes along,

Overall not pretty and very wintry...

Joe