NORFOLK, Neb. (AP) — A meteorologist says steam from one or more plants on the east side of Norfolk helped generate snow that blew south to Seward and Lincoln.
Brian Barjenbruch works for the National Weather Service office in Valley, and he says the conditions were just right for the phenomenon Monday. He says the steam interacted with ice already in the clouds, allowing more snow to form.
He says it’s like lake-effect snow in which cold, dry air passes over warmer water.
The narrow snow band dropped about 2 inches (5 centimeters) of snow east of Madison by Monday afternoon, and Barjenbruch says it was separate from the intermittent precipitation that fell on other parts of eastern Nebraska.