Last Tuesday, February 11, we were experiencing one of the driest winters on record. Our snow total at Eppley was only 1", which, if winter had stopped that day, would have made it the least snowy winter on record.
A week later, on Tuesday, February 18, our tune has changed. Three snowstorms brought accumulating snow to the region, finally bringing some moisture back to eastern Nebraska and western Iowa. The first came Wednesday, where 3-6" of snow fell, with the highest amounts south of I-80. Saturday morning brought a narrow band of 6+" of snow along US-30 from Fremont to Denison. Round 3 has given us another round of 3-6" snow totals across the region.
Select totals for the Omaha metro:
Bennington - 5.8"
Fremont - 5.2"
La Vista - 5"
4 N of Gretna - 4.6"
Eppley Airfield - 4"
Boys Town - 4"
Select totals from eastern Nebraska:
Leigh - 6"
Central Dodge Co. - 6"
Richland - 5.8"
Nickerson - 5"
Lincoln - 4"
Blair - 4"
Auburn - 3.9"
Wahoo - 3.9"
Fort Calhoun - 3.8"
Murdock - 3"
Plattsmouth - 3"
Some select totals from western Iowa:
Sidney - 6.5"
Red Oak - 4"
New Market - 2.9"
Logan - 1.7"
Harlan - 1.7"
Atlantic - 1.5"
With these rounds of snow, Eppley Airfield has recorded 8.7" of snow in just this week. As an average February has 7.4", we are now above average on snowfall for the month!
Our seasonal snowfall is 9.7". Nothing to write home about, but at least we are out of contention for least snowy winter, for now. If we were to get no more snow for the rest of winter, this would still be the 2nd least snowy on record. We still have plenty of time, however.
What will this mean for moisture? Unfortunately, not much. These snows have been quite dry with little water content, for an explainer of what this means, click or tap here. Out of this snow, we received about 0.35" of water, again nothing to write home about but we will take any drop we can get.
As the snow melts next week due to our projected warm-up, most of that water should be able to soak into the dry ground and flood risks will be minimal.
