Having lived and worked in the Central Time Zone I can vouch for the severity of winter weather. As a matter of fact, after leaving "The Land of Ten Thousand Lakes", I was asked why I moved from Minnesota to Alaska. My answer: for the mild winters. It's true. Generally speaking, the weather in Anchorage is less severe, although somewhat snowier, than most of the Minnesota towns and cities in which I resided. Of course, road cams won't show you the temperature but they might give you an idea about drifts, ice and, in the warmer Central States, rain and traffic.
Nebraska Traveler's Information
The Cornhusker State has one of the best roadcam networks in the mid-west, which can be accessed from it's excellent Traveler Information Portal. The portal page includes links to the webcam page, weather and a few more useful items but, other than the cameras, the most useful feature is its interactive map. Place your cursor over an information icon and current road report notes appear. Very useful, and it's updated constantly.
Kansas Traveler's Information
The Sunflower state makes use of the Safe Travel USA services and, if you click on Kansas, an interactive map opens. (You may be warned that the digital signature isn't current; or doesn't match. Don't worry, just accept the signature and use the map.) Hovering the cursor above any of the icons will bring up current roadwork conditions, the coloration used on highways and routes give an indication of current conditions, and, if you click an area of the map, you'll zoom in on it.
Even better than that map, at least in my opinion, is the Road Weather Information System interactive map. Hovering the cursor over the red dots causes the station information box on the right to display current road and weather condition information specific to that area.
There are also a few webcams available in Kansas:
- Wichita, KS: This view of Wicita is brought to you by KAKE.com.
- Various Kansas WebCams: Brought to you by WeatherBug
- Kansas City: Some in webcams in Kansas and some in Missouri along with the option to check boxes to bring up other interactive information icons. KCTV5 also offers up a few views of the Kansas City area.
Oklahoma
The Sooner state just doesn't get too carried away with the idea of technology. The Oklahoma Department of Public Safety web site is anything but high-tech. That doesn't mean the information is sub-standard, it's just not as interactive or visually interesting as some of the other state sponsored sites. It's generally well updated; but if conditions are generally good, and expected to stay that way for awhile, the site might not be constantly updated with the same, boring, "There are no known hazardous conditions currently in this area", statements.
