It's not unheard of for Omaha to get snow in October, but it's also not overly common. This year, we managed to do so in the first half of the month, on the 14th.
Omaha's Eppley Airfield measured 1.4 inches, setting a new record snowfall for the date. The old record snowfall was only a trace, which happened in 1966 and 2007.
The heaviest snow fell right along and just south of I-80 in Nebraska on Sunday. According to snow totals reported to the National Weather Service, the snow "winner" was Crete, coming in at 5.5 inches. Lincoln picked up 3.5 inches, with the Omaha metro coming in from 1 to 3 inches.
The snow was our first in October in 9 years. The last time we measured snow in Omaha in October was in 2009, on October 10.
More recently, Omaha has had to wait much later for its first measurable snow. The last two years, Omaha didn't measure 0.1 inch or more of snow until early December. From 2013 to 2015 the first snow came in November.
On average, Omaha picks up its first 0.1 inch or more of snow on November 14. That tenth of an inch has come as early as September 29th and as late as December 31, in 2006.
If you're wondering what the rest of the snow season holds for us, we will have our winter forecast coming your way in late November. Winter 2018/2019 officially gets underway on December 21.
