Winter storm for the new year starts as sleet, in some areas

BEATRICE – A late-arriving winter storm was bringing the first round of significant snow this winter to southeast Nebraska, on the first day of the New Year.

A winter storm warning is in effect until midnight and a wind chill advisory in place from midnight Saturday to 9 a.m., Sunday.  Although the warning became active at 3 a.m., wintry precipitation didn’t arrive in the Beatrice area until about 6 a.m., Saturday, starting out as sleet pellets. 

Few snowfall totals had been reported to the National Weather Service in the early morning hours of Saturday.

In the Beatrice, Fairbury, Wilber, Tecumseh and Pawnee City areas, total daytime snowfall accumulation was expected to range between three and seven inches.  Wind chills during the day were forecast to dip to as low as 18 below zero, with north winds at 15-to-25 miles-per-hour, gusting to 30 miles-per-hour.

The New Year’s night temperatures in southeast Nebraska were expected to fall to about 12 below zero, with a wind chill of about minus-24.

The storm should be through southeast Nebraska by early Sunday……with sunshine expected for the end of the holiday weekend, and temperatures in the upper teens.