Winter Weather — Lancaster, Nebraska

2011-12-03 · Lancaster, Nebraska

Event narrative

Snowfall of 2 to 4 inches fell along Interstate 80 creating slick roads and poor visibilities. This lead to an semi truck rear-ending a car which had slowed down due to traffic. The collision killed a 2-year-old boy who was properly restrained in the back seat of the car. The driver, the boy's father, was injured in the accident. There were than 70 crashes in Lincoln alone from this storm and 17 other calls in the county that requested law enforcement help.

Wider weather episode

Low pressure tracked from Kansas to the Great Lakes region on December 3rd as an upper level disturbance lifted northeast out of the Rockies. This brought a southwest to northeast band of snow, some of it heavy, from Nebraska into western Iowa. Slightly warmer air that was pulled into the system from the southeast kept most of the precipitation as rain in far southeast Nebraska and southwest Iowa, and limited snow accumulations just to the northwest of that area. Most of the precipitation was also southeast of far northern Nebraska, which allowed far northeast Nebraska to escape most of the snow also. Heavier snow totals from the storm included 8 inches in Weston, Nebraska, around 7 inches in David City, Nebraska and Little Sioux, Iowa, 6.5 inches at the NWS office near Valley, Nebraska and around 6 inches in Ft. Calhoun, Fremont, Bennington, and Utica, Nebraska along with Castana, Harlan and Logan, Iowa.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 351599. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.