The snow lovers have been waiting for this for months, and it finally happened, Omaha saw snow! Now if that sentence was written in November, December, or even January, it would probably not be too remarkable, yet that sentence was written on February 13. The day prior, Omaha saw its first decent snow of the season in a season of relentless dry weather.
Omaha watched the neighbors to the north (Tekamah, not Canada) get some snow early in the season, then watched as Falls City became bured in 16" in early January, but nothing for Omaha. Now, that has changed (Tekamah and Falls City saw snow too, only adding to the totals). So how much snow fell, and where does this place us in the larger context of winter? Find out below!
Overall, snow totals in the Omaha metro were in the 3-4" range, exactly in line with our forecast of 2-5". Here are some totals in and around the metro:
Plattsmouth - 4.7"
Papillion - 4.2"
Wahoo - 4.2"
La Vista - 4"
Bennington - 4"
SW Omaha - 4"
N Omaha - 4"
Memphis - 4"
Elkhorn 3.7"
Fremont - 3.6"
Blair 3.5"
Bellevue - 3.3"
Eppley Airfield - 3.2"
Valley NWS - 3.1"
Council Bluffs - 3"
Missouri Valley - 3"
Ashland - 2.8"
Farther to the north, snow amounts were less with Lyons at 2.3", Norfolk & West Point at 2", and Wayne at 1.3". Columbus was an outlier west/north of Omaha, with 4.4".
Down south, snow totals increased by a couple inches, here are some select totals:
Tecumseh - 7"
Auburn - 6.3"
Maryville, MO - 6.2"
Buchurd - 6.1"
Clarinda, IA - 6"
Falls City - 5.5"
Pawnee City - 5.5"
Sterling - 5.5"
Tarkio, MO - 5.4"
NE City - 5"
Fairbury - 5"
Shenandoah - 4"
Friend - 4"
Lincoln - 3.5"
Now, onto the context. With 1" of snow on February 12, this is the latest in the season Omaha has ever gone without a snow event of 1+". On average, our first 1" snow comes November 30th! Prior to this, that record was January 26, 1954.
With 4.2" of snow this season officially, this still places us in 2nd place for the least snowy winter on record, if winter stopped today.
Now that we finally got snow, we are ahead of Dallas, Houston, and Birmingham AL for snowfall this winter. However, we woefully lag behind cities like New Orleans or Pensacola FL in terms of total snowfall.
We are also woefully behind our seasonal average of snow. As of February, Omaha sees around 18-19" of snow. Last season, we had 17.3" of snow up to this point.
