Intense snow causes travel nightmare in the Plains

AccuWeather

Heavy snow and powerful winds forced closures of interstates and highways in the Plains on Jan. 8 as blizzard-like conditions caused numerous crashes.

Transcript

00:00 Meantime on the colder side of this storm, we're seeing snow and not just snow. We've got a blizzard in places like Goodland, Kansas

00:06 We've also had some slick conditions on the set in southern, Nebraska

00:10 With heavy snow bands and for a closer look at the conditions there

00:15 We're gonna head to meteorologist Tony law

00:17 But he always seems to be fine the cold and the snow in Lincoln, Nebraska and Tony what's it been like there today?

00:22 Well, it has been a mess for sure

00:26 I'm gonna go ahead and lead off with the big story because we don't want to bury the lead since everything else in Nebraska is

00:31 Getting buried right now. I 80 a hundred mile stretch of that from Grand Island West to Cozad, Nebraska

00:37 Is closed down highway 30 is also closed as well that runs parallel to I 80 in that stretch

00:45 So we are starting to see closures work their way into, Nebraska right now. We're starting to see the winds pick up

00:50 That was going to be the concern

00:51 I've been talking about all day is the heavy snows came this morning and that created some issues not just on I 80

00:58 But on some of the back highways as well. We're gonna take you to the little town of Crete, Nebraska

01:01 This is about 20 miles or so south of I 80 about 30 miles to the southwest of Lincoln

01:07 And we had some issues down in that neck of the woods a lot of these back roads certainly very treacherous

01:12 You're seeing here a lady who got stuck in her SUV as he kind of slid off the highway a little bit

01:17 They're actually getting pulled out by a truck that had to actually yank her up the hill to get her back onto the road

01:22 So she was able to get free that was just one of numerous

01:25 Incidents that we saw down in that neck of the woods there again these little two-lane highways

01:29 Especially dangerous here as we get very narrow pathways to really work your way around here

01:35 So a lot of that traffic making it a little difficult

01:37 We saw a lot of cars that were off the road several of them well off the road

01:41 So hazard is travel during the day not just on the major interstates

01:44 But on some of the back roads as well. We're bringing back live here to Lincoln again. We're talking about those winds

01:50 This is the strongest I've actually felt in terms of the winds all day

01:53 We expect these winds to increase could be looking at gusts to about 45 miles per hour overnight

01:58 With the snow continuing another three to four inches here in Lincoln

02:02 But it's that blowing snow that we're gonna be having issues with we do have blizzard warnings for the Grand Island area those areas where?

02:08 I mentioned earlier where I 80 is closed we could see some of those

02:11 Extended a little bit further to the east as we get an overnight, and then that snow moves into, Iowa tomorrow

02:15 So messy days on store for us here for the next 24 to 48 hours

02:19 All right that it is Tony and certainly stay safe there as we continue to cover this storm notice

02:26 We do have a leg again a lot of that snow these

02:29 Blizzards they produce the blowing the drifting and just the mess of things for us you can identify

02:35 Here where some of the snow reports are coming in eastern, Nebraska by the way

02:39 We have picked up more than nine inches in several locations, and we're still counting with that snowfall coming down

02:44 We need and want the snow around the Great Lakes not finding it

02:48 We have had deficits of snow of 30 some inches places like Grand Rapids for example this winter season

02:56 We need about three more feet of snow in some spots and even a Marquette that number should be up in the 50s by now

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