October Cold Blast

A rare series of Arctic air masses moved into the High Plains region starting October 22, 2020. Record low temperatures were seen across the region. Along with the cold air mass, a weekend long duration snowstorm also moved across the state bringing heavy snow. Some of the heaviest snow fell across the western Sandhills where a report of 14 inches occurred 8 miles WSW of Lewellen.

Above is a listing of snowfall totals, with a snowfall map shown below. Snow begin to fall around noon Saturday October 24, 2020 across the northwest Sandhills and slowly spread southeastward. Snow begin to taper off Monday morning, October 24, 2020.

Temperatures were well below normal for this time of year with highs around 35 to 40 degrees below normal.

Record lows observed Sunday, October 25th, 2020:

Valentine - 4° (old record: 13° in 1962)

Imperial - 13° (old record: 13° in 1942)

Record lows observed Monday, October 26th, 2020:

North Platte - 13° (old record: 14° in 1887)

Valentine - 2° (old record: 9° in 1936)

Imperial - 5° (old record: 6° in 1997)

Record lows observed Tuesday, October 27th, 2020:

North Platte - 5° (old record: 11° in 1925)

Valentine - -4° (old record: 1° in 1925)

Imperial - 0° (old record: 6° in 1997)