Winter Weather — Madison, Nebraska

2024-03-25 to 2024-03-27 · Madison, Nebraska

Event narrative

Elkhorn Rural Power District reported widespread power outages across Madison county due to strong winds damaging ice covered powerlines. During the day on the 25th, freezing drizzle brought line ice accumulations of around 0.1 to 0.2 inches. Strong winds that developed across the county that day resulted in galloping and arcing lines. Most power outages were reported in southern Madison county west of the town of Madison, and in central Madison county south of Battle Creek (post on social media at 8:15 pm on the 25th). Cuming County Public Power District sent additional crews to assist with power restoration efforts across the county. Power was restored fully the morning of the 27th.

Winds across the county were estimated to have gusted up to 50 miles per hour. This included a peak wind gust at the Norfolk ASOS of 49 miles per hour at 4:20 AM on the morning of the 26th.

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 1162039. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.