New Year's Eve 2012, a Monday, featured a widespread 2 to 5 inch snowfall across southern portions of South Central Nebraska, mainly south of the Highway 6 corridor. The largest totals focused near the Kansas border, where NWS cooperative observers reported 5 at Red Cloud and Hubbell, 4.5 at Franklin, 4.8 at Nelson and 3 at Wilsonville. Within the far northern edge of the main snowfall area, places such as Holdrege, Hastings and Clay Center only measured between 1-2, while even farther north, most areas along and north of Interstate 80 observed only a very light dusting, if any snow at all.  Although the vast majority of accumulating snow fell the daylight hours between 8 AM and 5 PM, very light snow or flurries lingered well past sunset in some places. Despite visibilities reduced to around one-half mile at times, sustained north-northeast winds generally averaged no more than 15 MPH, keeping blowing and drifting snow in check.
On the large scale aloft, the primary instigator for this event was an expansive, positively-tilted longwave trough migrating toward the Central Plains from the western United States. On a more localized scale, South Central Nebraska snowfall focused underneath a pronounced band of mid level frontogenesis evident at 700 millibars, and likely tied to the left exit region of a 150+ knot upper jet streak stretched from eastern New Mexico into southern Kansas.

Winter Weather in HARLAN, NEBRASKA
From 31-DEC-12 08:00:00 to 31-DEC-12 23:30:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: COOP Observer

Snowfall totals of 2 to 4 inches were reported across the county, with the highest amounts in the southern half including 4 inches at Harlan County Dam.

Winter Weather in WEBSTER, NEBRASKA
From 31-DEC-12 08:00:00 to 31-DEC-12 23:30:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: COOP Observer

Snowfall totals of 2 to 5 inches were reported across the county, with the highest amounts in the southern half including 5 inches at Red Cloud.

Winter Weather in FRANKLIN, NEBRASKA
From 31-DEC-12 08:00:00 to 31-DEC-12 23:30:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: COOP Observer

Snowfall totals of 2 to 5 inches were reported across the county, with the highest amounts in the southern half including 4.5 inches at Franklin.

Winter Weather in NUCKOLLS, NEBRASKA
From 31-DEC-12 08:00:00 to 31-DEC-12 23:30:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: COOP Observer

Snowfall totals of 2 to 5 inches were reported across the county, including 4.8 inches at Nelson.

Winter Weather in THAYER, NEBRASKA
From 31-DEC-12 08:00:00 to 31-DEC-12 22:30:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: COOP Observer

Snowfall totals of 3 to 5 inches were reported across the county, including 5 inches at Hubbell.

Winter Weather in FURNAS, NEBRASKA
From 31-DEC-12 08:00:00 to 31-DEC-12 23:30:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: COOP Observer

Snowfall totals of 2 to 4 inches were reported across most of the county, with the highest amounts in the southern half including 3 inches at Wilsonville.

Winter Weather in CLAY, NEBRASKA
From 31-DEC-12 09:00:00 to 31-DEC-12 22:30:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: CoCoRaHS

Snowfall totals of 2 to 3 inches were reported across most of the county, with the highest amounts in the southern half including 3 inches near Fairfield.

Winter Weather in FILLMORE, NEBRASKA
From 31-DEC-12 09:00:00 to 31-DEC-12 22:30:00 (CST-6)
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: CoCoRaHS

Snowfall totals of 2 to 3 inches were reported across most of the county, with the highest amounts in the southern half including 3 inches near Shickley.