Blizzard — Franklin, Nebraska

2025-03-19 · Franklin, Nebraska

Event narrative

Snowfall amounts ranged anywhere from 4 to 7 inches. The highest reported totals included 4.0 inches from Naponee. This snow, combined with the strong northerly winds, resulted in widespread white-out conditions.

Wider weather episode

An active upper level pattern led to a series of potent disturbances training across the Central Plains within the span of a week in mid-March. The third in this series was a wave moving out of the Central Rockies, strengthening into a stacked low pressure system as it moved through High Plains, and then shifting northeast through Kansas. The accompanying area of surface low pressure took a similar track through Kansas, deepening to around 986mb, with the resulting tightening surface pressure gradient behind the passing cold front bringing strong northerly winds during the overnight-early morning hours of the 19th. Widespread wind gusts of 50 to 60 MPH, with a handful of gusts closer to 70 MPH, generally peaked between 4-11AM CDT, but lingered into the early-mid afternoon hours on the 19th. The highest peak of the event was 72 MPH, measured by a mesonets station located six miles south-southeast of Kearney just after 4AM CDT on the 19th.

The system's initial precipitation spread across the area between mainly 8-11PM CDT the night of the 18th, initially as scattered rain showers with a few embedded thunderstorms. As the mid-upper level system deepened with time, increased frontogenetical forcing resulted in a more focused southwest-to-northeast axis of heavier precipitation, which would very gradually shift east across the entire area through the daytime hours on the 19th.

Though starting off the event as rain thanks to above-freezing temperatures, colder air advecting into the area from the northwest would bring a gradual transition over to snow. A few reports of small hail and graupel were observed within some of the stronger storms between 12AM and 5AM CDT on the 19th, mainly across Nebraska areas near the state line and into north-central Kansas, ahead of the larger push of colder air. While most of the forecast area had switched over to accumulating snow well before sunrise, the overall slow eastward push of the system and lingering drier low-level air held delayed heavier snow until closer to sunrise on the 19th.

Anomalously warm highs in the mid 70s-low 80s on the 18th resulted in relatively warm ground temperatures ahead of the system. The timing of the heaviest precipitation bands coming during the overnight-morning hours of the 19th allowed the system to take advantage of the already diurnally-coldest part of the day, as well as the strong cold air advection on the back end of the system. This combined with the increased forcing of the system resulted in snowfall rates being able to overcome the melting potential. The at-times heavy snowfall rates, occasionally enhanced early-on by lingering instability and thundersnow, combined with the strong northerly winds to produce widespread blizzard conditions across the entire area into the early-mid afternoon hours of the 19th. Areas generally along the Highway 81 corridor were the last to see snow come to an end.

The best combination of colder temperatures and frontogenetical forcing led to a fairly broad axis of 4-7 inches, orientated southwest to northeast through the heart of the forecast area. Embedded in this swath was a narrower axis of 9-12 inches, mainly focused across portions of south-central Nebraska, and centered roughly along a line from near the Webster-Nuckolls County line northeast through York and southeastern Polk counties. The overall-highest totals were reported in York County, with 10-12 inches reported in both the York and Waco areas. Outside of the edges of the main swath, snow amounts fell off quickly, with locations such as northwestern portions of Dawson and Valley counties in Nebraska and southeastern Mitchell County in Kansas getting only a dusting up to perhaps 1 inch. This system did not lack moisture, with liquid-equivalent totals exceeding 1 inch across far eastern counties where the heaviest snow fell. West of the higher snow, liquid-equivalent totals exceeding 0.5 were widespread.

Impacts from this blizzard were well-forecast, allowing for area schools, organizations and road departments to prepare, including by closing school and cancelling events. Reports of widespread power outage began to trickle in during the early-mid morning hours on the 19th. The combination of the winds with this snow that was more wet-sticky in nature resulted in widespread reports of downed trees, tree limbs, power lines and power poles across the entire area. Several hours of white-out conditions were reported, and at times road departments pulled their plows off the roads. It didn't take long for roadways across the entire area, including major highways and Interstate 80, to be shut down.

At its peak, customers without power reached over 130,000 for the entire state of Nebraska, with some counties reporting nearly 100% of customers without power. In Fillmore County, approximately 95% of the county was without power for 2 days, with some without power for up to 8 days. The South Central Public Power District alone reported around 1,000 downed utility poles, 200 destroyed transformers and 50 miles of major feeder lines with large conductors in need of repair. This blizzard was considered the most destructive event on the SCPPD system since the ice storm of March 1976.

A passenger train heading east from Hastings became stranded near Exeter in Fillmore County due to the blizzard conditions and heavy snow, with 139 passengers onboard and in need of assistance. Adams County Emergency Management organized efforts to get passengers off of the train and sheltered back in Hastings, with the train eventually towed back.

The Nebraska State Patrol reported to around 500 weather-related incidents across the state. The governor declared a State of Emergency and requested a Federal Disaster Declaration for numerous counties, reporting that more than 1,700 power poles were downed or destroyed and estimating damages exceeding 64 million dollars. It took several days for all roads to reopen and power to be restored to the hardest-hit areas.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1252765. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.