Action 3 News Weather Blog

Good Evening,

Just to continue where CT left off, and he covered the bulk of it, the bitterly cold is still on the way! The wind chill warning is still in effect overnight into Friday morning. An arctic high pressure center will drop into the Mid Missouri River Valley over the next two days. As this happens temperatures will fall to -14 in Omaha tonight and -20 on Friday Night. If there is any good news the wind speeds will decrease over the next two days as the core of arctic air moves in. The flip side to that is any air movement with temperatures this cold will produce wind chill factors of -30 to -40. Keep in mind with readings this cold you can get frost bite in a matter of minutes. Some light at the end of the tunnel, temperatures will warm back to near 30 by the middle of next week!

Happy Thursday everyone!

As we advertised all week long…the cold is finally here!  It’s really the cold AND the wind.  As of 11 am CST, here are a few snapshots of our weather computer graphics from selected official observation sites from our area:

The combination of slowly falling temperatures and sustained winds of 25 to 35 mph, wind chill temperatures have dropped below -20 which is becoming dangerous for those who are outdoors for extended periods of time.  According to the National Weather Service wind chill chart (see below), 30 minutes on exposed skin with wind chill temperatures of -20 or colder can lead to frostbite, which can cause permanent skin damage.

A WIND CHILL WARNING will be in effect for the Action 3 News coverage area, including the Omaha metro, from 6 pm this evening through noon Friday.  Forecast wind chill temperatures during this period of time will cool to to as low as -40…and effectively reducing the frostbite possibility time to 10 minutes!  Therefore limit your time outdoors and wear plenty of layers of all exposed skin to lessen your risk of frostbite!

On a different note, I took a few snapshots from my digital camera while roaming out of the station during my lunch break today:

The first two pictures were snapshots of going westbound on “L” Street on the I-80 overpass in southwest Omaha.  Of course, the drifting and blowing snow seen in these photos are nowhere representative of what is occurring in the open country outside of the metro where many roads are drifted shut.  The third picture is a “sun dog”.  A sun dog is caused by the same process in which you see a rainbow during the warm season.  Sunlight is ultimately reflected and refracted through tiny ice crystals present in the lower atmosphere before reaching your eyes.  I had a few people tell me earlier this morning about the sun dog they saw going into work.  More on sun dogs can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_dog

Lastly, for those wondering about total snowfall for this event…the final numbers aren’t in yet.  Generally speaking, Douglas, Sarpy and Pottawattamie counties received 4″-5″, not including snow drifts, which aren’t included in official measurements anyway.  Here is a summary of snowfall reports from the Omaha/Valley National Weather Service office:

OMAHA METRO PRECIPITATION REPORTS
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE OMAHA/VALLEY
1108 AM CST THU JAN 7 2010

MEASUREMENTS TAKEN BETWEEN 6 AM AND 8 AM BY STORM SPOTTERS AND NWS
PERSONNEL

.B OMA 0107 C DH07/PP/SF/SD

:LOCATION                        24HR PRECIP      24HR SNOWFALL    SNOW DEPTH
  [NORTH WEST]
BENNINGTON 3WSW                      0.24     /        4.4     /   17
BOYSTOWN 1NW                                  /        5.0     /
FREMONT                              0.28     /        3.0     /   16
NWS OFFICE VALLEY                    0.32     /        4.6     /   20

  [OMAHA NORTH EAST]
EPPLEY AIRFIELD                      0.20     /        5.1     /   21
35TH & CHARLES                       0.31     /        3.8     /   19
32ND & TUCKER                                 /        4.0     /   19

  [SOUTH EAST]
PAPILLION                            0.36     /        4.8     /   20
SPRINGFIELD 7E                       0.21     /        4.3     /   14

  [SOUTH WEST]
GRETNA 3NE                           0.28     /        4.2     /   20

(Click on the thumbnail image to see the full-size map)

That’s all the time I have updating the blog today.  Thanks for tuning into Action 3 News for staying ahead of the storm!  Next week appears to be drier and warmer with high temperatures back in the 20s and 30s.  The Arctic Circle will finally be shut off for a while so we can catch our breath!

-C.T.