BEATRICE – The City of Beatrice has enacted a snow emergency from noon today through noon Tuesday. That makes it illegal to park vehicles on snow emergency routes between Midnight and 7 am.

Residents can help the city’s snow clearing efforts by removing their vehicles from all streets, if possible.   The Gage County Courthouse was closing at noon, on Monday.....and a decision as to whether it will be open on Tuesday, will be made later.

Wintry weather arrived in the Beatrice area at around seven a.m., starting out as light rain, then sleet changing over to snow. Gage County Emergency Manager Lisa Wiegand said, "The good thing is the choices that the schools made in the area...obviously, the MUDECAS tournament, those decisions to keep people safe and keep them at home. We'll wait and see how it plays out."

Those who have to travel should have an emergency kit in their car and call a relative to say where you will be traveling.

"Our roads departments are going to be working really hard, between our villages, the City of Beatrice and the county....so they've got their plans in place and they're out there."

Tuesday could be a day of blowing snow, following overnight heavier snow. Rural areas could be especially impacted with blowing and drifting.

"There's a lot of clear areas. In agriculture, a lot of farmers have planted those fields to rye....so there's not a lot of stalk cover right now...so that blowing and drifting is going to happen."

Also declaring a snow emergency was the village of Johnson, in Nemaha County…..asking residents to remove vehicles from the Main Street so snow removal crews can do their job.