blowing snow in Nebraska

[Chinook]

On December 31, I drove across Nebraska to Fort Collins. Snow had recently fallen, but it had stopped snowing, and the snow was just blowing around.

There were low visibility ground blizzard conditions in western Nebraska between North Platte and the Wyoming/Nebraska border. There were some moments when a wall of blowing snow hit me and I could not see anything for a few seconds. That happened over and over. Sometimes I lost visibility for a whole minute. I had 30-40mph northwest winds. It was as if patches of dense fog were blowing over the road at 30mph. It was 5 degrees. I finally found that when I got to Wyoming, the visibility had improved a lot and I could drive near the speed limit. I've never seen a ground blizzard before, not like this. It gets like this in Colorado, but not inside the city. Due to some miracle of snowplowing, the road surface was normal, not covered with slush or ice, so there were very good driving conditions. I would have expected a million icy spots.

[baroclinic_instability]

On December 31, I drove across Nebraska to Fort Collins. Snow had recently fallen, but it had stopped snowing, and the snow was just blowing around.

There were low visibility ground blizzard conditions in western Nebraska between North Platte and the Wyoming/Nebraska border. There were some moments when a wall of blowing snow hit me and I could not see anything for a few seconds. That happened over and over. Sometimes I lost visibility for a whole minute. I had 30-40mph northwest winds. It was as if patches of dense fog were blowing over the road at 30mph. It was 5 degrees. I finally found that when I got to Wyoming, the visibility had improved a lot and I could drive near the speed limit. I've never seen a ground blizzard before, not like this. It gets like this in Colorado, but not inside the city. Due to some miracle of snowplowing, the road surface was normal, not covered with slush or ice, so there were very good driving conditions. I would have expected a million icy spots.

That location is a major wind region since the entire Great Basin drains through the I-80 corridor into the plains with ejecting upper lows. A couple classic wind areas around there are I-25 in the lee of the Laramie Range where strong W flow downslopes across the highway. Arctic fronts like the CO high plains with developing lee cyclones, of course. Lovely area to live for extreme weather!

[Chinook]

I read somewhere that some little area near Chugwater is one of the most consistently windy spots in North America.

[baroclinic_instability]

I read somewhere that some little area near Chugwater is one of the most consistently windy spots in North America.

yeah that whole areas W of the Laramies is nasty. Another great wind area is in the lee of the Snowy Range (Medicine Bow Range in Colorado) along I-80. Arlington is famous for both persistent and extreme winds.

[FarmerRick]

Not much for trees in western NE to slow the wind down at the surface either.

[Chinook]

KOGA 312150Z AUTO 33027G34KT 3/4SM -SN OVC007 M15/M18 A2962 RMK AO2 T11461178

This is the METAR for Ogallala Nebraska, December 31, 2150z (3:50 Central or 2:50 Mountain). I drove through this.

[Chinook]

yeah that whole areas W of the Laramies is nasty. Another great wind area is in the lee of the Snowy Range (Medicine Bow Range in Colorado) along I-80. Arlington is famous for both persistent and extreme winds.

There are many winter days when Laramie is 10-15 degrees colder than Fort Collins, with 10-20mph wind.

[MOBNOLA]

There are many winter days when Laramie is 10-15 degrees colder than Fort Collins, with 10-20mph wind.

We call Fort Collins the "Banana Belt". It is amazing how different the weather can be in Larimie(66miles NW) and Cheyenne(25-30miles NW)

can be.