WAUSA – The winter of 2023-24 is leaving no doubt about what season it is in northeast Nebraska.
From January 7-13, two winter storms significantly impacted eastern Nebraska and western Iowa, according to the National Weather Service office in Omaha.
The inclement weather caused Wausa Public Schools to cancel classes Jan. 8-9, Jan. 12 and Jan. 15-16.
“So far, we have enough days added in that we should be fine,” Superintendent Brad Hoesing said on Jan. 15 of potentially adding school days to make up for canceled classes during the 2023-24 academic year.
The winter storms also led to the postponement of Wausa’s basketball games that had been scheduled for Jan. 9 at Neligh-Oakdale and Jan. 12 at Osmond/Randolph.
The Lied Lincoln Township Library in Wausa also was closed several days during the past week and a half due to the snowy situation that has turned the region into a winter wonderland.
Wausa area residents have been digging out this week from the deep freeze after the snowfall subsided and vehicles with plows have had plenty of snow to move as tall drifts have become a common sight throughout the community.
The winter storms brought not only precipitation that made roads across the region impassable for several days due to snow and ice cover, but also bitter cold temperatures and winds that led to dangerous wind chills well below zero.
The most recent winter storm started the morning of Jan. 11, according to the National Weather Service. With colder air working in, the snow with this storm was much more light and fluffy, and when combined with strong winds, made for very poor visibility with lots of blowing and drifting snow.
This also led to difficulties measuring the snowfall. Still, the National Weather Service had many reports across northeast Nebraska of around 8-11 inches, with a few pockets of slightly higher amounts.
On the lower end, the National Weather Service saw around 3-5 inches in far southeast Nebraska and southwest Iowa, but there were some locally higher amounts in those areas as well.
This storm proved to be really impactful due to the blowing and drifting snow and many roads remained closed well after the snow ended.
Gov. Jim Pillen issued a state-of-emergency declaration for Nebraska on Jan. 13.
The first storm of the week started to move in late on Jan. 7 into the early morning of Jan. 8, first as a wintry mix of freezing rain, sleet and snow, but eventually transitioned to heavy, wet snow, according to the National Weather Service.
The precipitation rates were high enough that snow quickly started to stick despite temperatures hovering at or just above freezing in many locations.
The exceptions were along the Interstate 80 corridor from Lincoln to Omaha, where most snow melted on contact through the daytime hours. However, once the sun went down, snow quickly started accumulating in those areas as well.
Totals ended up ranging from around 4-5 inches in parts of east-central Nebraska and southwest Iowa to near or even above a foot in northeast Nebraska and far southeast Nebraska.
More than 1,200 people were rescued from vehicles trapped in the snow during the week of Jan. 7-13.
In addition, extremely cold air moved in on the tail end of the second storm, as wind chills plunged into the range of 30-50 degrees below zero.
