'Historic' snow blankets parts of Midwest, disrupts travel

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A major winter storm blanketed parts of the middle of the country with snow that was forecast into late Tuesday in some areas, disrupting traffic and closing some coronavirus testing sites.

The National Weather Service said at least 4 inches (10 centimeters) of snow was expected across most of an area stretching from central Kansas northeast to Chicago and southern Michigan. Parts of southeast Nebraska and western Iowa got more than three times that much by Tuesday morning.

“This is historic snow,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Taylor Nicolaisen, who is based near Omaha, Nebraska.

There were early closures of several coronavirus testing sites on Monday in Nebraska and Iowa, and both states saw more than a foot (30.5 centimeters) of snow in places by Tuesday morning. Nicolaisen said up to 15 inches (38 centimeters) was likely between York, Nebraska, and Des Moines, Iowa, and that it has been at least 15 years since that area received more than a foot of snow in a single storm.



A pedestrian steps in tire tracks while crossing the street during a winter storm in downtown Lincoln, Neb. on Monday, Jan. 25, 2021. (Kenneth Ferriera/Lincoln Journal Star via AP)


Read more: https://apnews.com/article/iowa-chicago-storms-coronavirus-pandemic-nebraska-c7c1f8b011cfb2dae2ad8c8a8d905b93

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More snow on the way Tuesday night into Wednesday.

[luv2fly]

1. As I get ready to go out and shovel here in southern WI

I have to wonder what makes this "historic?" Four, eight, twelve inches isn't really all that unusual.

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

2. +1...nt

[OldBaldy1701E]

4. True

But when we had almost nine days of over 95F here in Minneapolis, I heard some of the same thing. I am from North Carolina, and most of the summer was above 95F. Not unusual at all. So, it depends on your perspective I guess.

[jayschool2013]

13. 14.5 inches in Lincoln

is the second-most ever recorded in that city of 300,000 people. Keep in mind that southeast Nebraska is much farther south and west (higher elevation) than Wisconsin, so we're not as hardy as you Cheeseheads. (I now live in Iowa, which is also much colder than Lincoln, my hometown.)

IOW, "historic" depends on where you live, but it doesn't make it less historic in that particular place.

[Progressive Jones]

31. Exactly. Northern IL here, halfway between Chicago and Rockford.

The snow that just fell is common here. We got about 5 inches.
I haven't seen any "historic" snow in the Upper Midwest in years.

[StClone]

42. Central WI got some snow showers, none on ground

Today near 60!

[Hip2bSquare]

3. Light dusting so far in Denver metro area

More to come. I do love the snow, from inside the house! Stay safe everyone!

[Renew Deal]

5. How is 4" of snow from Kansas to Michigan "historic?"

Has it never snowed there before? Or is it historic in the way that everything is historic? It's snowed. That's history!

[jayschool2013]

14. Read the fourth graph

Most snow in those areas in at least 15 years. The 14.5 inches in Lincoln is the second-most ever recorded history for that city.

Link to tweet

[SharonAnn]

25. I lived in Omaha in 1965 during record snowfall. Probably about 18".

Lots of people trapped at work, school, downtown, at home that day/night.

[Demsrule86]

32. We had three feet of snow here in Cleveland a while back...my dog got stuck!

We get lake effect.

[Vinnie From Indy]

6. Historic???

WTF? These areas have far greater amounts of snow along much lower temps in the past.

[bucolic_frolic]

27. Exactly, it's a lot of hype

Historic begins at 34" and up and 5 below zero

[FailureToCommunicate]

7. Where we lived in Missouri, four inches of snow would be a dusting not "historic".

[Demsrule86]

33. Same where I live in Ohio...wouldn't even need bread and milk!

[FailureToCommunicate]

39. Yes! We moved to Ohio after Missouri. My father hoped the winters would be less...

severe. He learned about "lake effect" (Lake Erie) snow pretty quickly, and was homesick for the Show Me state.

On my mother's side, she lost a great uncle to a blizzard in Nebraska. Two brothers lived on a farm, and one went out to check on the animals in the barn, got disoriented, and lost. His brother found his frozen body the next day. The surviving brother decided to "move back to civilization"... to Sioux City, Iowa.

Storms can be mild, or awful, or "historic", depending on a lot of different circumstances.

[BumRushDaShow]

8. Welcome to the east coast states' world!

(IF you double that amount (the 15" )! )







And rather than doubling, just add a mere 1/2 ft onto the "15" and you'll get our 2016 storm -

[NutmegYankee]

40. Blizzard of 2013. That was a solid 30 inches for me.

And it’s wasn’t all powder. Sleet and freezing rain had mixed in several times. Shoveling that was a horrendous experience.

[BumRushDaShow]

41. The winters of 2013/2014 were HORRIBLE

One of my sisters lost a 10-year old fig and my mom's 60+ year old aluminum patio awning was almost completely destroyed from the weight of the ice/snow/melt/refreeze. Wash.Rinse.Repeat. There were also periods of polar vortex invasions with single digit temps.

In the part of the city where I live, we had 60.52" from my measurements (snow, sleet, & ice) that season. But the worst for total snow/frozen precip was actually the 2009 - 2010 season where I measured 70.38" of snow (the airport officially registered 78.7" for that year and 65.5" for '95/'96, located about 20 miles to my south).

The other bad year (although not in accumulation per se) was 1994 where we had a series of ice storms, almost back to back through January and into February.



Our "normal" average snowfall is about 22" a season.

[Baclava]

9. More weather fear porn, its winter, it snowed, let your kids go out and play in it lol

Breaking news, it also rains and sometimes the wind blows!

Huddled in your caves, shaking with fear?

I blame TWC for turing every snowflake into disaster porn by namiing fucking snowstorms to boost ratings

[BumRushDaShow]

16. We call it the

"French toast run" (eggs, milk, and bread).

[BumRushDaShow]

18. LOL

[Demsrule86]

34. I found a recipe for pumpkin French toast you add pumpkin puree to the batter with a bit of sugar,

and pumpkin spice.

[abqtommy]

10. We had snow late last night and early this morning here in Albuquerque. It's several inches

from what I see on my car when I look out my window. That's no big deal to me since I've
lived in Upper Michigan where it's usual to have 20 to 30 feet of snow each winter but every
time it snows a little here it pretty much shuts things down. Odds are that it'll warm up later
and melt the snow off my car and I won't have to clean it off. I love it here!

[Quemado]

23. In my part of ABQ, we got about a quarter of an inch.

Paradise Hills area.

[Demsrule86]

36. When I lived in Wisconsin...came from Georgia. We didn't even own coats.

I had grown up in Connecticut so I had dealt with snow. It was very cold. The kids were required to wear snow suits to school. They went out in 0 degree weather for recess. School was cancelled at 30 below zero. I bought a down coat that covered me to my ankles and snow pants. That year I was a sub so I often had to go out. I had been told that they didn't get much snow as it was so cold. But they had a 'mild' winter...only `10 below mostly. It started snowing on Halloween and ended in April. We had snow everyday. At one point folks on the highway had to be rescued as the snow had shut it down. The people in the cars would have died if they had been left there...I remember snow past my hips from one storm. We couldn't open the door.

[Maxheader]

11. Wichita...Sc ks,

Has missed the snow , 1.5" of rain though. ...

[MuseRider]

22. Up here

just South if Topeka we got rain with a little snow on top. They told us the day before to expect 8 inches then it was briefly 8-12 then it was a trace. We need the moisture badly and I suspect you do too.

[jayschool2013]

15. IT IS HISTORIC in Lincoln

Link to tweet

[Demsrule86]

37. Seriously? I thought Nebraska got lots of snow...we had more snow everywhere I lived except

Georgia. We had three foot earlier this year.

[jayschool2013]

38. It's not the amount of snow

It's the Great Plains winds that almost always turn 12 inches of snow into five-foot drifts and white-out conditions that make travel impossible.

Further, northern and western Nebraska get much more snow than southeastern Nebraska, which is where Lincoln is located.

In other words, Lincoln is the San Diego of the Big Ten university cities.

[NurseJackie]

19. I've seen worse.

[jayschool2013]

28. If you're from Lincoln and under 55 years old

You haven't. So it's historic for them. I don't think they're writing about you.

[NurseJackie]

29. I never said they were.

I don't think they're writing about you.

I never said they were.

[jayschool2013]

30. The implication

The implication (and maybe it's just my inference, so I apologize if that's the case) in all of these "I've seen worse" is that this isn't a big deal.

If you're living in Lincoln, Nebraska — an American capital with 300,000 people — or traveling along I-80 from either coast to the other, this is a major deal with real impact on those people's lives.

Hell, I lived through the 39-inch dump in 2003 in Fort Collins, Colorado, so I've seen worse as well. But that doesn't matter to my family and elderly parents in Lincoln today.

For the record, I was 3 years old in Lincoln when the largest snowfall ever in that city (18 inches) happened. Combine the Great Plains winter winds with any snowfall of at least 10 inches, and you have a major problem for hundreds of thousands of people living in a place most people give no thought to otherwise.

I wish they would.

Addendum on edit: That 18-inch snowfall in 1965 drifted so badly — those Great Plains winds — that our front door was totally snowed in, as was the garage door. That's tremendous impact on a city if many people can't get out and need help, even if most of the other parts of the country say they've "seen worse."

[MuseRider]

21. Historic?

I live in Kansas and we only got a dusting here but still....I remember when most winters you could expect at least one big snow. For us that would be an 18 incher and sometimes more if there was another round on top of the first. We have not had a good snow for a very long time, perhaps the person that wrote this is in his 20's?

Even since I have lived here on the farm we have had only one winter with a lot of snow and that was some time towards the time we moved in here, 12 years ago. I do remember not being able to drive up to the barn, it was a long and cold slog through drifts about waist deep but even then the total amount on the ground was maybe 13 inches.

This reporter must be very young and not told to research.

[Marthe48]

24. Glad the weather is back in the news

seems like every topic except impeached traitor and his crimes were set on the back burner he last few years.

[pfitz59]

35. This is the kind of snow I grew up with