Cold temperatures were expected again across Kansas on Wednesday, a day after a late winter storm swept across the state, coating roads with freezing rain and light snow.

The storm, which weakened as it passed through the Kansas City area late Tuesday afternoon, forced school closings and event cancellations and was blamed for at least one fatal traffic accident.

Juanita June Wyant, 66, of Westmoreland, died Tuesday morning when her car slid into a van on Kansas 99 in Pottawatomie County. The van’s driver was injured, the Kansas Highway Patrol said.

In central Kansas, state troopers were kept running from one accident to the next as motorists failed to negotiate patches of black ice and slick overpasses.

“Troopers are basically prioritizing traffic-way accidents first and slide-offs later,” patrol supervisor Bill Arehart said. “It would be a real good time to stay home if people don’t have to be somewhere.”

Still, things could have been worse.

Dozens of cars slid into ditches along the Kansas Turnpike between Topeka and Kansas City, Kan., late Tuesday afternoon. The patrol was still counting wreck reports late Tuesday night, but no injuries were reported in any of the turnpike accidents.

Steve Kays, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Topeka, said the wintry mix had dropped everything from rain to freezing rain and drizzle to snow across the northeast part of the state. The central and northeast regions were affected the most, but western Kansas also received a dusting of light snow.

In some areas, Kays said, temperatures dropped 15 to 20 degrees within a couple hours.

John Finch, a weather service meteorologist in Dodge City predicted that the cold would remain through Wednesday, with another cold spell possibly coming in on Friday and extending through the weekend.

Along a five-mile stretch of Kansas 18 near Manhattan on Tuesday, about 30 vehicles were involved in accidents or slid off the roadway, according to Lt. Kurt Moldrup of the Riley County Police Department.

Moldrup said some of the vehicles were involved in chain-reaction crashes and others in individual accidents as they approached hills and curves along the roadway.

The storm also prompted schools across the region to close early, including the Manhattan, Salina and Fort Riley campuses of Kansas State University, which closed at 3 p.m.

Other events canceled or postponed included high school playoff basketball games and the annual Pancake Day parade in Liberal.

Almost all of the high school basketball games scheduled for sites outside southeast Kansas were wiped out. Most of the games will be played Wednesday, but times may differ from the original schedule, according to Paul Palmer, the basketball administrator at the Kansas State High School Activities Association.

In Liberal, the annual Pancake Day race between the small southwest Kansas town and the English town of Olney was held despite freezing drizzle and cold temperatures. With temperatures in the 20s and wind gusts of around 40 mph, organizers opted to cancel the annual parade that accompanies the race.

And in Topeka, the weather was so bad that officials cancelled a class for those who wanted to learn about — bad weather.

Shawnee County Emergency Management Director Gary Middleton said it was the first weather-related cancellation in his 26 years with the department.

The class, rescheduled for Wednesday night at Washburn University — weather permitting — teaches hundreds of people about tornado spotting and safety measures with spring storms, Middleton said.