If you were driving on Sunday, you may have approached an intersection and saw a traffic light partially or completely covered by snow.
"It was really hard to see, I couldn't really tell if it was a green light, yellow light, red light," says Omaha resident James Thomas.
A wet and heavy snow blanketed Omaha on Sunday, making the streets slick and clogging some north-facing stoplights.
"If the wind is driven at the right angle and it's wet enough, it will stick," says Todd Pfitzer, assistant public works director.
"It made it very dangerous for most drivers, including myself, I mean you don't know when to stop, you don't know when to go," says Thomas.
The city of Omaha switched to LED traffic lights several years ago. While the cost to power the lights has gone down, the LED lights have caused a few headaches for the city.
"The LED's don't generate enough heat to melt off the snow, so we had to go out and physically do it, we have to get up with boom trucks and take brooms and wipe them off," says Pfitzer.
Pfitzer says the problem is virtually unavoidable and crews were sent out to clear off the lights sunday.
"Could happen ten times this year and not happen for a decade, nobody knows, it's like a 100-year flood, we can't predict what year it's going to happen, we just know it's going to happen once in a while," says Pfitzer.
So what should a driver do if they encounter a snow-covered light? Treat it like a four-way stop.
"If you can't see the indications, you need to stop, look both directions and proceed when it's safe."
Pfitzer also says there is a heating device that would alleviate the problem, but the cost of the heater would wipe out the city's savings by using LED lights.
