Winter Storm — Knox, Nebraska

2024-03-25 to 2024-03-26 · Knox, Nebraska

Event narrative

Emergency Management submitted photos of snow and ice-covered roads at the intersection of Highway 12 and Highway 14 near Niobrara, NE at 8:00 am on the 25th. Road crews were unable to keep up with the snowfall at the time of the report. On the evening of the 25th into the early morning hours of the 26th, strong northwesterly winds up to 45 miles per hour were estimated across the county. The highest observed wind gust was 44 miles per hour, recorded 3 miles north of Bloomfield.

An estimated 5 to 8 inches of snow fell across the county with the highest snowfall totals to the west. This included several reports of 4 to 8 inches of snow from CO-OP observers in Verdel, and a 3-inch snowfall report from a CO-OP observer in Orchard.

Wider weather episode

On the evening of March 24th, upper air analysis showed a longwave trough with its axis positioned over the Rockies. As this feature moved out into the Plains, strong surface cyclogenesis produced a deep surface low in southeast Colorado. Surface sea-level pressure on the evening of the 24th was observed to be 986 mb at the center of the low. This low pressure then tracked to the northeast across the central Plains during the 25th and moved into the Upper Midwest by the morning of the 26th.

While strong forcing for ascent brought widespread precipitation across much of the central and northern Great Plains, dry air intrusion dried out much of eastern Nebraska and western Iowa for the duration of this event. Nonetheless, several rounds of light to moderate mixed precipitation fell across central and northeast Nebraska from the evening of the 24th through the morning of the 26th. Through 6 pm on the 25th, precipitation largely fell as snow northwest of a line from Boone to Cedar counties. On the evening of the 25th, as the center of the low pivoted into southeastern Nebraska, widespread freezing drizzle developed from south-central Nebraska into east-central Nebraska. Ice accumulations of 0.1 to 0.2 inches in this area in conjunction with northerly wind gusts up to 50 miles per hour the night of the 25th brought widespread power outages due to arcing and galloping lines. Up to 8 inches of snow fell across the far northwestern corner of the County Warning Area in Knox County.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1162011. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.