Winter Weather Covers Nebraska with More Than a Foot of Snow

Lincoln, Neb. -- It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. That call from the public school at 8:45pm Monday night should have been my first indication that there was something more going on than the 2-4 inches forecast earlier that day. I though "Geeze, this is Nebraska" even with a mild winter last year most of us here know what to expect during the winter months. The only drawback is that this is a college town, and the home of the Huskers (who are reestablishing their reputation this year I'll have you know) which means that there are kids from Texas, California and Arizona as well as all of those other states where you don't need to know how to drive on snow.

My neighbor, Jason Ware of Lincoln, told us on Tuesday evening that the side streets were easier to drive on than the main roads. The plows had scraped off the first part of the snow and then some had melted on contact leaving the streets wet. When it got cold the moisture on the pavement froze turning into a thin crunchy ice. Add that to the soft snow falling again and you had a nice shuffleboard table effect.

My mother-in-law was over that evening while we prepared to decorate the beautiful fir tree we had picked out at the Q.P., when I noticed that the soft fluffy snow had turned into a wet grainy snow that sticks to everything it touches. It was coming down good, too. So it was no surprise when 10 minutes later, the school called again canceling for Wednesday.

By 8pm it looked like I could bury a ruler in the snow on my deck. Lucky for me I had stocked up on supplies and since I work at home, I decided we were going nowhere. The wind started howling that night and the weather report said that although it was a whole 11 degrees outside, it felt like minus 1 with the wind chill. My hubby who smokes on the porch agreed with that.

Before going to bed I looked out the window and saw a gust of wind come over and around the side of my house catching snow from the porch and the roof. The effect with the Christmas lights was a dazzling short lived mini snow tornado right in front of my window. It was magical- the falling snow, the Christmas lights and the whipping winds. I decided to have a nice cup of Cocoa and cream before heading downstairs.

Today we have talked with a few who have been out and about. Frank Guzinski delivers a paper route here in Lincoln. His wife, Jeni told us that the Lincoln Journal Star had asked simply that they get the papers there today. I guess they had given up on the possibility of a morning delivery, bar those carriers with 4 wheel drive. Jim Adkins told me that even in the downtown area, the side streets continued to be blocked with cars stuck in the drifts.

Thus far, there have been no cancellations for tomorrow. Maybe they figure that if they run the plows all night, they can be ready for tomorrow. With an overnight temp tonight of 7 below, I won't be going for a walk down the lane. Looks for now to be over. Not quite a blizzard. By Saturday we will be enjoying a whopping 20 some degrees. Guess we won't be putting away the boots anytime soon. That won't be enough to melt the snow. I guess we'll just have to push it around from one pile to another in our parking lots.

Looks like this winter wonderland is here to stay for a bit.