Drought conditions remained unchanged across western and north central Nebraska in December. Precipitation was below normal in the eastern Nebraska Panhandle and portions of far southwestern Nebraska.
Every event with a place to put it; 14 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS LBF wrote it up.
Drought conditions remained unchanged across western and north central Nebraska in December. Precipitation was below normal in the eastern Nebraska Panhandle and portions of far southwestern Nebraska. Across the northern Sandhills from eastern Cherry county into Holt county, precipitation for the month was running 50 to 90 percent of normal. Across the central and southern Sandhills, including Lincoln and Keith counties, precipitation was 100 to 150 percent of normal. For the year ending in December, Broken Bow, North Platte, Valentine and Imperial, ran precipitation deficits of: -3.33, -5.48, -1.94, and -9.36 inches respectively.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS North Platte, NE wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Nov 30, 6:58 PM CST, 5 hours 2 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service North Platte NE 658 PM CST Mon Nov 30 2020 .SHORT TERM...(This evening through Wednesday) Issued at 302 PM CST Mon Nov 30 2020 Near-term concerns revolve around the strong winds Tuesday and the potential for light snow late Tuesday into Wednesday. Period begins with meridional flow aloft as a strong trough shifts east across the Ohio River valley with a strong surface cyclone developing along the Appalachians up into the Northeast CONUS. Not expecting as cool a night tonight as an approaching frontal boundary associated with a weak surface low moving across southern South Dakota will lead to fairly breezy winds overnight. Lows will range from the mid 20s to perhaps a few locations seeing the upper teens, primarily in the typical cooler river valleys. Timing of the front has it splitting the CWA by sunrise on Tuesday and clearing the area to the east by mid-afternoon. A fairly tight pressure gradient with high pressure anchored across the Central Rockies along with a belt of stronger h85 flow will allow winds to become fairly strong during the day. Even with the increasing cloud cover, mixing should be enough to tap into the stronger flow off the surface with uni-directional winds in the boundary layer, allowing effective momentum transfer to go along with strong cold-air advection. BUFKIT soundings across the area show potential for 35+ knot gusts across much of the area. Have bumped up winds for the day as a result, running with the highest NWP guidance plus a multiplier. This yields sustained winds 15 to 25 mph with gusts of generally 35 to 40 mph west of Highway 183 and potentially approaching 45 mph for portions of the eastern Panhandle. Am somewhat concerned we may see enough Black Hills lee-side convergence to yield a few rain/snow showers across the Sandhills into the eastern Panhandle for the late afternoon. The extended HRRR/RAP both advertise this potential with the NAM Nest in fairly decent agreement as well. Most of the courser models do not depict this potential though. Will introduce sprinkles/flurries to account for this for now and pass along to upcoming shifts to monitor hi-res for this potential. While temperatures at h85 will be decreasing through the day, the coldest air won't arrive until the evening, therefore didn't decrease temperatures too much with highs generally in the 40s. Pressure rises of just short of 1 hPa/hour should keep winds fairly elevated overnight Tuesday into Wednesday. Because of this and the expected cloud cover, did bump up Wednesday morning lows slightly with mid teens near the Pine Ridge to low 20s elsewhere. Stronger forcing for ascent arrives early Wednesday in the form of isentropic lift, mainly within the 295k surface, and vorticity advection leading to increasing PoPs early Wednesday. Still some discrepancies with respect to timing of the strongest isentropic lift and the strongest cyclonic vorticity advection, but agreement is fairly good spatially which highlights mainly areas west of a Broken Bow to Ainsworth line for the best chances at precipitation. By this time, temperatures at h85 will favor snow with the biggest question mark with respect to ptype being surface temperatures. Did trend these down for Wednesday, which has most of the area hanging on to the upper 20s to mid 30s. Expecting mostly snow with all precipitation though some locations may see a brief mix with rain. QPF will remain light, totaling only around a few hundredths, keeping snow accumulations low as well...less than an inch with the highest amounts across far southwest Nebraska. Isentropic lift begins to wane by late afternoon Wednesday, which should allow the bulk of the precipitation to end around that time. .LONG TERM...(Wednesday evening through Monday) Issued at 302 PM CST Mon Nov 30 2020 Beginning 00z Thursday. The double-barreled system setting up across the southern Rockies into the central Plains will keep the bulk of the forcing aloft to the south of the local area heading into Wednesday evening/early Thursday. Will have to watch for some wrap- around precip lingering into Thursday morning for areas generally south of Interstate 80 but think this is a fairly optimistic mindset regarding this potential as dry air continues to invade the High Plains and the main surface low pressure system will be situated even south of Kansas. The main h5 trough will likely phase back into the flow and shift east of the region by Friday. Some uncertainty remains with respect to the potential cutoff across the Desert Southwest around this time, but thinking the bulk of the features of interest will stay to the south and keep us dry heading into the weekend. Temperatures will be cool for Thursday but we'll see a warming trend for Friday and the weekend. Ridging will attempt to develop across the northern Rockies by Sunday with highly amplified flow developing across the High Plains as a result. This will likely keep the bulk of any energy aloft to the east and the area dry which lines up with the latest CPC outlook which shows dry and warm for the the first half of December. && .AVIATION...(For the 00Z TAFS through 00Z Tuesday evening) Issued at 627 PM CST Mon Nov 30 2020 VFR conditions will prevail tonight into Tuesday. A cold front will cross the area Tuesday with winds increasing from the northwest. Gusts near 35 kt could occur west of a line from VTN to LBF during the day Tuesday. Some increase in mid and high cloudiness expected Tuesday afternoon. && .LBF WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... None. && SHORT TERM...NMJ LONG TERM...NMJ AVIATION...Taylor
Hazardous Weather Outlook National Weather Service North Platte NE 308 PM CST Mon Nov 30 2020 NEZ004>010-022>029-035>038-056>059-069>071-094-012115- Sheridan-Eastern Cherry-Keya Paha-Boyd-Brown-Rock-Holt-Garden- Grant-Hooker-Thomas-Blaine-Loup-Garfield-Wheeler-Arthur-McPherson- Logan-Custer-Deuel-Keith-Perkins-Lincoln-Chase-Hayes-Frontier- Western Cherry- 308 PM CST Mon Nov 30 2020 /208 PM MST Mon Nov 30 2020/ This Hazardous Weather Outlook is for portions of western and north central Nebraska. .DAY ONE...TONIGHT. No hazardous weather is expected at this time. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...TUESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY. Northwest winds strengthen Tuesday in the wake of a cold front. Gusts will approach 45 mph at times, which could make travel difficult for high profile and lightweight vehicles, along with those on east-west routes. Light snow is possible Wednesday, although any accumulation should be minor with totals under one inch. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... Spotter activation will not be needed through tonight. && Get your weather, hydrological, and climate information at http://www.weather.gov/northplatte
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
14 drought. Local standard time, as filed.
During the month of December, extreme (D3) drought conditions remained unchanged across all of Hayes County. The cooperative station at Hayes Center reported 0.41 inches of precipitation for December. This was 0.12 inches below the normal of 0.53 inches.
During the month of December, extreme (D3) drought conditions remained over the southern half of Lincoln county. Along the Platte River Valley in central Lincoln county, severe (D2) drought conditions remained unchanged during December. The cooperative station at Wallace 2W reported 0.37 inches of precipitation for December. This was 0.03 inches below the normal of 0.40 inches. The cooperative station at Hershey 5SSE reported 0.44 inches of precipitation in December. This was 0.15 inches above the normal of 0.29 inches. At the North Platte Airport, 0.72 inches of precipitation fell which was 0.31 inches above the normal of 0.41 inches. At the cooperative station in Brady, 0.92 inches of precipitation fell.
Extreme (D3) drought conditions remained unchanged during the month of December in Frontier County. The cooperative station at Curtis reported 0.66 inches of precipitation for the month. This was 0.21 inches above the normal of 0.45 inches. The cooperative station at Eustis 2NW reported 0.91 inches of precipitation in December. This was 0.25 inches above the normal of 0.66 inches.
During the month of December, severe (D2) drought continued over far southern Custer county. The cooperative observer at Callaway 8WSW reported 0.79 inches of precipitation for the month. At the Broken Bow airport, 0.84 inches of precipitation fell. This was 0.34 inches above the normal of 0.50 inches.
Severe (D2) drought conditions continued across southeastern Garfield county through December The cooperative station at Ericson 8WNW tallied 0.60 inches of precipitation for December. This was 0.13 inches below the normal of 0.73 inches.
Severe (D2) drought conditions continued across the southern half of Wheeler county in December. The cooperative station at Bartlett 1W reported 0.64 inches of precipitation for the month. This was 0.15 inches below the normal of 0.79 inches.
During the month of December, drought severity remained unchanged across Sheridan County. The western half of the county was in extreme (D3) drought with the eastern half of the county in severe (D2) drought. The cooperative station at Gordon 6N reported 0.62 inches of precipitation for the month. This was 0.17 inches above the normal of 0.45 inches. The cooperative station at Ellsworth 2W reported 0.34 inches of precipitation for the month. This was 0.11 inches above the normal of 0.23 inches.
During the month of December, drought severity remained unchanged across Garden County. Extreme (D3) drought conditions persisted over the western 2/3rds of Garden county with severe (D2) drought conditions over the eastern third of the county. The cooperative station at Lisco reported 0.21 inches of precipitation for the month. This was 0.42 inches below the normal of 0.63 inches. The cooperative station at Oshkosh reported 0.19 inches of precipitation for the month. This was 0.18 inches below the normal of 0.37 inches. The cooperative station at Crescent Lakes National Wildlife Refuge reported 0.33 inches of precipitation for the month. This was 0.04 inches below the normal of 0.37 inches. The cooperative station at Oshkosh 8SW reported 0.34 inches of precipitation for the month. This was 0.16 inches below the normal of 0.50 inches.
Drought conditions remained unchanged across Deuel county in December. The eastern quarter of the county remained in severe (D2) drought, while the western 3/4ths of the county remained in extreme (D3) drought.
For the month of December, drought conditions remained unchanged over Grant county. Severe (D2) drought conditions persisted over southwestern portions of the county.
During the month of December, drought severity remained unchanged across Arthur county. Severe (D2) drought conditions were present over the western half of the county. The cooperative station at Arthur reported 0.41 inches of precipitation for the month. This was 0.08 inches above the normal of 0.33 inches.
During the month of December, extreme (D3) drought conditions remained present over far southern Keith County. Over the remainder of the county, severe (D2) drought conditions persisted through December. The cooperative observer at Kingsley Dam reported 0.58 inches of precipitation in December. This was 0.12 inches above the normal of 0.46 inches. The cooperative station at Ogallala reported 0.69 inches and was 0.30 inches above the normal of 0.39 inches.
During the month of December, extreme (D3) drought conditions remained unchanged for all of Perkins County. The cooperative station at Madrid reported 0.19 inches of precipitation for the month. This was 0.20 inches below the normal of 0.39 inches.
During the month of December, extreme (D3) drought conditions remained unchanged across all of Chase County. The cooperative station at Imperial reported 0.36 inches of precipitation for the month. This was 0.14 inches below the normal of 0.50 inches.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Nebraska in 2020Every state in 2020This day in weather historyWarnings in Nebraska, December 2020
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 931292, 931293, 931294, 931299, 931301, 931302, 931284, 931285, 931286, 931287, 931288, 931289, 931290, 931291.