BEATRICE – Some Southeast Nebraska areas were seeing more than just a dusting of snow to start out the new week. The Beatrice area had received about two inches of wet snow as of late Monday morning.


"The trucks initially went out this morning without their plows on and we were going to go out and throw some salt down...and think we're going to have things taken care of. Since them, we've had to go back in and get the plows put on. Things are pretty warm right now.....just really slushy."


Beatrice Street Superintendent Jason Moore said the expected rain-snow mix turned into heavy wet snow instead. He says this year, city trucks will be spreading salt, instead of a salt-gravel mix.  "By saving some on gravel, we're going to be able to spend a a little more on salt and put straight salt down....and hopefully not have the cleaning costs at the end of the storm.....not to have to sweep gravel up."


Late last week, city street trucks applied liquid de-icer on bridges and some of the major curves on highly traveled roads. Another dose of winter road conditions is expected later this week, but Moore says it’s a wait-and-see period as to how extensive it gets. Later this week, temperatures are also expected to take a steep dive, especially Thursday and Friday.  "That cold, our salt isn't going to be working....I saw somewhere that Thursday, the high is going to be below zero...so if we don't have the streets completely cleaned off before that sub-zero comes in....there may be some streets with some stuff sticking to them."


Moore says whether crews will be working the overnight period, is yet to be determined. "If we only have a little bit of snow but a lot of wind, it doesn't really make sense to bring them in overnight....it's a wait-and-see right now. The best we can hope for is for it to get a little warmer and for some of the side residential streets to melt. Because if they don't, then this snow is going to be on them when the sub-zero gets here, maybe Tuesday night, or Wednesday....then the snow is going to be on the side-streets for a while."


The National Weather Service says blizzard conditions are possible both Wednesday and Thursday, with snow and winds gusting to 40-to-50 miles-per-hour. That’s expected to drop wind chill readings to as low as 40-to-50-below zero. The greatest travel impacts are expected from late Wednesday night to Thursday evening.