Winter Weather — Cass, Nebraska

2006-12-31 · Cass, Nebraska

Event narrative

A period of moderate to heavy snow caused poor visiblities and slick roads that resulted in a vehicle crash which killed a 2-year-old boy south of Plattsmouth on Highway 75. Snowfall totals in the area were in the 2 to 4 inch range.

Wider weather episode

A large low pressure system moved out of the southwest United States and brought a mix of wintry precipitation to eastern Nebraska. Ahead of the system, abundant moisture fed north into Nebraska with storm total rain amounts of 1 inch or more common over all of eastern Nebraska. With temperatures below freezing for most of the event in sections of northeast Nebraska, much of this rain fell as freezing rain, except over the northern half of Knox county where the precipitation started as moderate snow. The freezing rain mixed with sleet and snow briefly before ending over northeast Nebraska Sunday morning 12/31/06. Farther south over east central and southeast Nebraska...the rain changed to a brief mix of freezing rain and sleet before changing to all snow by mid morning.

The freezing rain caused widespread major damage to trees and power poles and lines across a large part of central into northeast Nebraska. NPPD, the power company that absorbed much of the damage from this storm, called it the worst in the company's history, a fact echoed by many people that lived across the area. In total over Nebraska, the ice storm knocked 37 main high-voltage transmission lines across 600 miles out of service, snapped or toppled more than 6,000 utility poles, including large steel structures, caused power outages for over 15,000 homes and businesses in over 30 communities and did an estimated $240 million in Utility damage alone. Some towns remained without power for days afterward, and some more remote customers remained without power for weeks. A major disaster declaration was issued for 57 counties in Nebraska from this storm. As of late January 2007, the state was to receive $30 million, slightly more than the total received by the state for the previous 16 federal disaster declarations dating back to 1990.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 4006. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.