Powerful Pacific System Impacting the West; First Significant Snow for Portions of the East

Power Pacific system will continue to bring significant impacts for Pacific Northwest into northern California the remainder of the week. Dangerous coastal affects, heavy rain, flooding, strong winds, and higher elevation mountain snow continues. Meanwhile, a storm across the east is set to bring the first accumulating snow to many higher elevations of the Catskills into the central Appalachians. Read More >

Overview

An area of low pressure developed along the lee of the Rockies in eastern Colorado and tracked northeast across the Great Plains on Wednesday, January 18, 2023. Plentiful moisture and powerful dynamics of a system more typical of a springtime storm came together to result in a swath of significant snowfall across western and north central Nebraska. When all was said and done, the single calendar day snowfall record was broken at North Platte with a total of 13.9", while two feet of snow was reported in nearby Custer County. This storm was also the third major snow storm to impact the forecast area in the course of a month. With January not yet complete, portions of the northern Sandhills have nearly doubled the normal winter season's worth of snow.

Final snowfall at NWS North Platte: 13.9"

(new single day snowfall record)

Photos
Radar
Snow Maps
Environment

Photos


near Anselmo source: Brenda Rebich	near Big Springs source: Starlette Balsoma Connelly	near Broken Bow source: Laura Perez	Custer County source: Deb Kennedy


near Dunning source: Rhonda Horst	near Johnstown source: Frank Beel	near North Platte source: Jarryn Wiley-Pearce	near North Platte source: Kel Lie


near Ogallala source: Matt Payne	near Thedford source: Dawn E Hansen Bryant	near Wallace source: Conrad Nelson	near Whitman source: Sydney Nielson

For more pictures, visit our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/NWSNorthPlatte

Radar

Tuesday evening (1/17) - Thursday early morning (1/19)


Tue. 6 PM - Wed. 6 AM CST	Wed. 6 AM - 6 PM CST	Wed. 6 PM - Thu. 6 AM CST

Radar loops courtesy of Iowa Environmental Mesonet. Pink county outline = Winter Storm Warning

Snow Maps

Storm total snow from Jan. 18:

Amounts derived from local storm reports, automated airport gauges, Cooperative Weather Observers, CoCoRaHS.

Season-to-date (Sept. 1 - Jan. 19) snowfall:

Environment

Surface analysis:


Early Wednesday morning	Wednesday afternoon	Late Wednesday night

Upper air analysis (500mb):


Early Wednesday morning	Wednesday afternoon	Late Wednesday night

The "Colorado Low":

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Powerful Pacific System Impacting the West; First Significant Snow for Portions of the East

January 18, 2023, Record Breaking Snow