The first few days of 2023 was certainly active with a large winter storm that moved through the country. This storm system was responsible for producing severe weather from Texas to North Carolina and brought snow from California to Wisconsin. In our region, this storm system brought heavy rain, thunderstorms with hail, ice, and significant snow depending on where you live.
Here are the total precipitation amounts for the region from January 2-4. It is important to note that this mostly includes rain, but also snowfall if melted to water. Meaning locations like Norfolk saw more snow than rainfall, while places south of Omaha saw all rain. Great to see a lot of moisture this early in the year, hopefully this is a good sign!
Although areas south of Omaha remained rain, places north and west of the metro saw freezing rain. This is just rain but freezes as it comes into contact with surfaces below freezing. This occurred in northeast Nebraska, where some locations saw between 1/10th and 1/4th inch of ice accumulate on trees and other surfaces. The gusty winds also caused a few power outages in isolated spots.
Although mainly to our west, parts of Nebraska into South Dakota was slammed with a significant snow. From the sand hills to Sioux Falls, some locations picked up not only 1' of snow, but over 2' of snow.
This is the third significant snowstorm to affect the region. In Valentine, near the South Dakota border, nearly 40" of snow has fallen so far this winter! On average, Valentine should only have picked up around 1', its record is nearly 60". It is the third snowiest winter up until January 4.
