FAIRBURY - The first winter storm of the season has certainly brought snow to Southeast Nebraska, just simply not as much snow as was initially anticipated. 

Forecasts called for a maximum of around 12 inches of snow around the area across the weekend, but Fairbury and Jefferson County simply did not receive that much as of Sunday afternoon. Emergency services reported just under three inches of snowfall had accumulated overnight from Saturday into Sunday; that total rose to about four inches as of mid-morning Sunday; and by Sunday afternoon, the total was around six to eight inches, depending on where you are in the area. 

Muddying up the ability to determine a clear measurement: intense, consistent winds across the area, blowing the snow around and making measuring, plowing, and driving through the snow much more challenging. And even though there hasn't been a ton of snowfall in total, there has been consistent snowfall throughout the day Sunday: snow fell with the same consistency - both in terms of frequency and substance - and the same velocity for much of the day.

Other places in the area have certainly experiences more snowfall: Reynolds and Hubbell, about 30 minutes west of Fairbury, recorded 8-10 inches of snow, and into Kansas, around an hour south of Fairbury, cities have seen snowfall into the double digits: 10-12 inches if not more, in certain areas. 

The city of Fairbury itself has been under a snow emergency since noon on Saturday, but there really was no snow in the area until about 7 PM on Saturday. Even into the early morning, 1 to 2 AM Sunday, not a ton of snow on the ground or in the sky - but that snow began to pick up as Sunday rolled along. 

Plows were out in the downtown and residential areas of Fairbury on Sunday morning, but all the snow that accumulated throughout the day largely rendered those initial efforts null and void. 

All of that has made recovery efforts very challenging: neither roads nor sidewalks were easy to traverse Sunday, and visibility - regardless of location - was extremely low, making travel of any kind, whether by car or by foot, very treacherous. 

And that's going to hinder recovery efforts for the start of the workweek. It remains to be seen how much progress can possibly be made because even though there hasn't been as much snow as initially anticipated, it has been consistent, which will make recovery and restoration ahead of school and work on Monday even more challenging.