KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Sleet and drizzle glazed swaths of the central U.S. on Sunday, extending icy weather that some meteorologists acknowledged fell short of dire forecasts.

Much of the region remained under an ice storm warning on the eve of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday as stretches continued getting pelted by rain, often in areas where temperatures hovered around freezing.

A National Weather Service ice storm warning for the Kansas City and St. Louis areas expired Sunday afternoon as temperatures exceeded freezing. An identical warning remained in effect until this morning to the north, as the storm pressed into Nebraska and Iowa.

The freeze made roads harrowing. In Kansas near Kansas City, two troopers escaped injury when their vehicles were struck while working a crash along northbound Interstate 635. And in central Nebraska, authorities believe icy conditions contributed to a fiery crash involving two tractor-trailers shortly before 9 a.m. Sunday on Interstate 80, forcing a three-hour closure of 15 miles of Interstate 80. There were no injuries.

Authorities say ice contributed to a Kansas wreck Saturday night that killed an Oklahoma man and injured several others. The highway patrol said the man died after the sport utility vehicle in which he was riding went out of control on an overpass and eventually overturned several times.

Some people lost power amid the storm. Nearly 11,000 electric customers were without power in Oklahoma, nearly all in northwestern part of the state. Woodward County Emergency Management Director Matt Lehenbauer said Sunday that the county was likely the hardest hit.

South of Kansas City, the latest round of storms dumped three-quarters of an inch of precipitation overnight, resulting in about one-quarter of an inch of ice.

Jared Leighton, a National Weather Service meteorologist near Kansas City, Mo., said Sunday that while the breadth of the ice accumulations fell short of expectations, “that shouldn’t distract from the impact of the storm.”

“The amounts were never really the story; the impacts were,” Leighton told The Associated Press. “The roads are still a mess, and the highway patrol is having their vehicles run into.”

Becky Allmeroth, a maintenance engineer for the Missouri Department of Transportation, said ice is “the most difficult storm to fight.”

“We are keeping up with the changing conditions, but it is a continual battle,” she said.