Winter Weather — Stanton, Nebraska

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

Event narrative

Emergency Management reported freezing drizzle and sleet in Woodland Park at 11:39 AM on the 25th. At 11:45 AM that same morning, Emergency Management reported ice had started to stick to tree branches in the area but not on roadways. At 9:04 PM, the EM reported arcing power lines and scattered power outages across the county since 4:30 PM that afternoon. Ice on power lines with strong winds also resulted in widespread galloping lines. Stanton County Public Power District also posted a video on social media of galloping lines the afternoon of the 25th.

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 1162043. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.