Early transition to snow, blizzard expected west on Christmas

As precipitation redevelops early Christmas morning, it was not snow just yet for far eastern Nebraska, including Lincoln. The primary precipitation types we’ve been seeing has been rain and freezing rain with some surfaces becoming icy. Temperatures are expected to keep dropping throughout the day, so we’ll see a changeover to snow eventually this morning.

Meanwhile, all of the winter weather alerts went into effect at midnight Monday morning. Snow has started up across central and western Nebraska. Winter weather alerts through Nebraska that are in effect (below) include:

• Blizzard Warning (red) – for whiteout conditions due to significant snow and high winds reducing visibility below 1/4 of a mile for a minimum of three hours, making travel treacherous if not impossible.
• Winter Storm Warning (pink) – for significant snow and wind, but not meeting blizzard criteria, travel will be difficult.
• Winter Weather Advisory (purple) – for less snow and wind expected as wintry mixed precipitation cuts into snow totals, winter driving conditions expected.

An important update as of this morning has most of these winter weather alerts ending by Monday night in eastern Nebraska. Lincoln is included in a Winter Weather Advisory that goes until 9 p.m. Monday night. Just west, a Winter Storm Warning for Seward County and Butler County goes until 9 p.m. Monday night as well. Everyone west of that has winter alerts until Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning.

Accumulations will really pick up through the day on Monday, as this system pivots and continues to bring snow through central and northern Nebraska into Tuesday. Heaviest snow expected the first part of Christmas for eastern Nebraska, with totals on the lighter end because of the early winter mix and earlier end to heavier snow rates by Monday evening.

For the western 2/3 of the state, snow is going to continue until early Wednesday.

Winds will be a contributing factor to travel impacts statewide especially Monday into Tuesday. The strongest winds will be in northeast and central Nebraska Monday into Tuesday with gusts up to 50 mph possible.

Overall, slight adjustments were made to southeast Nebraska’s snow totals as the system tracks more to the northwest. That, along with some mixed precipitation early Monday has dropped the snowfall potential through our area.

We will continue to provide updates on the weather conditions both on air and on social media throughout this winter storm.

Meteorologist Jessica Blum 
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