Another blast of snow before week's end

BEATRICE – Southeast Nebraska received another one to three inches of snow overnight Thursday into Friday.  

The powdery snow was being whipped around by northwest winds gusting to nearly 40 miles-per-hour…pushing drifts across streets, rural roads and highways.  

Snow-clearing equipment was out early Friday in Beatrice clearing streets that still had leftover snow and ice from a major winter storm early this week, that produced eight-to-ten inches of snow across the region.

Areas around Lincoln saw two to nearly five inches of snow Thursday night into early Friday morning.  Some amounts of five to six inches were reported closer to Omaha.

Gage County Board Chairman Erich Tiemann said county road graders were out Friday and trying to keep roads clear, but winds and drifting are making that difficult.   He recommends rural residents who don’t need to travel, to stay home.   Tiemann said some snow removal equipment is getting stuck in some areas and high winds are creating sizable drifts across roadways and field edges.  Visibility is very poor in some areas. 

Tiemann said county snow removal crews would be working on Saturday as well, trying to keep rural roads open….but travel is not recommended….given continuing blowing snow and drifting.   Add to that bitterly cold temperatures are making it dangerous to be outside for longer periods of time. 

Temperatures took a dive overnight, with many locations seeing readings in the single numbers early Friday.

Temperatures are expected to get much colder over the weekend into Monday….with wind chills dropping to more than 30-below zero at times.   Saturday night’s low temperature in the Beatrice area was forecast to reach 17-below-zero.

By the middle of next week, southeast Nebraska temperatures are expected to reach the mid-20s.