Hurricane Polo remnants bring historic rainfall to Nebraska

OMAHA, Neb. — The remnants of Pacific Hurricane Polo, which made landfall in the California Baja a few days ago, officially reached Omaha, Nebraska, overnight.

KMTV meteorologist Tim Schmidt said it is extremely rare for a Pacific tropical cyclone to impact Nebraska and called the rain amounts were "impressive and historic," with four to seven inches falling in just two to three hours Wednesday night into Thursday morning. The heaviest accumulation hit low-lying areas around Omaha.

The rain flooded streets and creeks across eastern Nebraska.

Watch semi-truck jackknife during historic Nebraska storm

Standing water covered roadways early Thursday morning near Douglas Street and Saddle Creek Road in the Saddle Creek neighborhood, near the Buffett Cancer Center.

Several cars were abandoned along Saddle Creek Road due to the heavy rain. Near Harrison Street, KMTV crews counted seven cars left abandoned around 2 a.m.

Near Papillion Creek, baseball fields and roads were left underwater as first responder crews took action near Millard Ave.

At Papillion Creek near 680 and Pacific Street, water rose to the banks and nearly to the top of the bridge.

On I-80, a semi truck jackknifed during the rain.

The flooding also put extreme stress on the sewer system in the Saddle Creek neighborhood.

In the Ace Hardware parking lot, a manhole cover was pushed off its platform as rising water pressure forced it out of position.

Flood Warning in effect

Heavy rainfall from those overnight thunderstorms have prompted a Flood Warning in and around Omaha,

That warming is expected to lift by Thursday afternoon, and it's important you have a plan in place for your morning commute.

Turn around, don't drown if you see puddling on roadways.

Additionally, rivers will continue to swell throughout the morning - farms are likely to be impacted as well.

The record for most rainfall set in the month of September is 13.75", set in 1965.

While we didn't beat that record, we placed second overall for 2026.

In the month of September, thanks to that extra push from those storms last night, we received 11.92" of rainfall.

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