Historic snow buries the High Plains

AccuWeather

AccuWeather's Tony Laubach reports from North Platte, Colorado, where a new record for most snowfall in a day was set.

Transcript

00:00 Well, if you are a snow lover,

00:02 the odd place to be is Western

00:04 Nebraska after over a foot of snow

00:06 fell across a large portion of this

00:09 region including into Northeast Colorado.

00:11 That heavy snow coming with a lot

00:13 of consequences on area highways.

00:15 OK. Hi.

00:20 Stuck was indeed the word of the day for

00:24 many on Thursday across Northeast Colorado.

00:29 And they're coming together.

00:30 Heavy snow led to many

00:32 slide offs up and down I-76,

00:34 but it was this accident near Sedgwick

00:36 that briefly shut down the interstate.

00:38 Other flip vehicles littered the

00:39 highways is over 10 inches of snow fell

00:42 in the first few hours of this storm.

00:44 Nebraska was next in line for the

00:50 heavy snow leading to scenes like

00:51 this along I-80 near Big Springs.

00:53 But here in North Platte history

00:55 was unfolding into the evening.

00:57 It has been two hours.

00:59 We've seen over 8 inches of snow.

01:01 Snow rates up to 4 inches an hour

01:03 piled up at insane rates.

01:05 Interstate 80 would ultimately be

01:07 closed shortly before midnight as

01:08 trucks line interstate ramps,

01:09 many unable to get up the inclines,

01:12 and most of them had to hunker down

01:14 there overnight as light snow continued

01:16 to accumulate into Friday morning.

01:17 Snow tapered off the flurries

01:21 through the morning as folks

01:23 work to clear their cars,

01:24 waiting for the chance to continue on

01:26 their way and to say it snowed a

01:28 lot of snow. Platt would be the

01:30 understatement of the century.

01:32 In fact, if you go back over a century

01:34 when they started keeping records on

01:36 Thursday, North Platte said it's new

01:38 daily all time snowfall total at 15.3

01:40 inches over 14 of that falling in a

01:42 six hour window from 6 o'clock to

01:44 midnight on Thursday, just over 17

01:46 inches recorded at the National

01:47 Weather Service office just up the

01:49 street here and one of the heaviest

01:51 snows that this region has seen in

01:53 quite some time reporting for North

01:55 Platte, Nebraska for Accuweather.

01:56 I'm meteorologist Brian Wimbley.

01:58 I'm meteorologist Tony Laubach.

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