Winter Storm — Nance, Nebraska

2023-03-25 to 2023-03-26 · Nance, Nebraska

Event narrative

Storm total snow amounts were estimated to be between 3 and 8 inches across the county, with the highest amounts focused across the southeastern half of the county. Highest amounts reported included: 8.0 inches, measured by the NWS Cooperative Observer two miles west of Genoa; 7.0 inches, measured by a CoCoRaHS observer three miles west-southwest of Genoa; 5.0 inches, measured by the NWS Cooperative Observer in Belgrade.

Wider weather episode

Narrow band of heavy snowfall fell across portions of south central Nebraska during the evening hours of March 25th into the early morning hours of March 26th. A small, but potent, upper level disturbance moved across the Central Plains during the last weekend of March. Precipitation began as rain during the early evening hours of March 26th before changing to heavy, wet snow after sunset, from southwest to northeast. Warm air and ground temperatures initially caused snow to melt on contact with the ground, but eventually the moderate to heavy rates overwhelmed the above-freezing ground temperatures and led to rapid snow accumulation even on roads and sidewalks. Snow rates near, or just above, one inch per hour were noted within the narrow band of heavy snow. Because of the narrowness of the snow band, snow amounts ranged drastically over short distances. For instance, just between the Tri-Cities amounts ranged from 8 to 10 inches around Kearney, to 5 to 7 inches in Grand Island, to only 1 to 2 inches in Hastings. The heavy snow band was centered over or just northwest of the Highway 30 corridor, where total amounts of 6 to 10 inches were most common. Snow rates peaked during the late evening of the 25th into the early morning hours of the 26th, before the entire system shifted east of the area by dawn on the 26th.

Impacts were somewhat limited, despite the heavy snow amounts, due to the fact that the majority of the heavy snow occurred during the overnight hours on a weekend. This limited impacts to schools and businesses, and snow removal on roadways was relatively efficient due to the aforementioned warm ground temperatures. Also, wind speeds were not overly strong and trees had not started the leafing process, so this limited damage to trees and power lines much more than if this event occurred a few weeks later into the spring season.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1084217. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.