Winter Storm in Pierce, Nebraska

The office received public reports of 5 to 10 inches of snow across the county. The highest snowfall totals were received north of Norfolk, where over 10 inches of snow fell. Other notable snowfall reports from the public included a 6 inch snowfall report from Pierce, and a 9 inch snowfall report from Bloomfield. The Norfolk ASOS station just south of the county also measured a peak wind gust of 41 miles per hour during the event.

A longwave trough over the western CONUS moved out into the central Plains on 1/8. At the surface, a deep low-pressure system developed in the Texas panhandle the morning of the eighth and tracked east-northeast into the mid-Mississippi river valley by the morning of the ninth.

Beginning three in the morning on the eighth, a mesoscale band of snow set up extending from Jefferson County into Thurston County. This band persisted for four to five hours before the main round of snow moved into Eastern Nebraska and western Iowa from the south. While heavy snow fell across most of eastern Nebraska for the duration of the event, dry air across portions of east-central Nebraska and southwest Iowa in combination with warm ground temperatures significantly delayed the onset of accumulating snow in and around the Omaha metro. Moderate to heavy snow bands traversed eastern Nebraska and western Iowa after midnight on the ninth and lasted through the morning hours. Strong wind gusts up to 40 miles per hour on the back side of the storm system led to patchy blowing and drifting snow across the entire county warning area.