Winter Storm Cara Recap

Winter Storm Cara produced ice accumulations from freezing rain over a swath of the central Plains.

A textbook combination of Arctic air plunging south and tropical moisture surging north was responsible for the freezing rain across a swath of the southern and central Plains since Thursday, Nov. 26. Some areas saw enough ice to cause major power outages and extremely slick pavement for drivers and pedestrians.

(MORE: Impacts from Cara | The Science of Naming Winter Storms)

Besides the mess of sleet and freezing rain, there was also heavy rain on the warm side of this storm system.

The coldest air mass of the season so far in the West and the Plains helped to maintain the prolonged freezing rain event, providing a fresh supply of below-freezing air to slide along the ground underneath a layer of warm, moist air. The setup allowed precipitation to melt as it fell (and in some cases, to form as liquid droplets in the first place) before freezing on contact at ground level.

(MORE: Ice Accumulations and Impacts)

Arctic Blast

The upper-level trough, or southward dip in the jet stream, dug in across the West. Combined with a strong area of high pressure from Canada, the result was the first serious blast of arctic air this season in the West and Plains.

This led to the coldest temperatures so far this season for many areas. A couple of examples include Helena, Montana, where the lowest temperature recorded so far this season had been 14 degrees on Nov. 21; Helena fell to 6 degrees below zero both Thursday and Friday. Reno, Nevada had seen the mercury drop as low as 21 degrees on Nov. 11; Reno reached 20 on Friday and dipped to 16 on Saturday morning.

According to NOAA, the nation's low Friday, Nov. 27 was 24 below zero at Antero Reservoir in central Colorado. This is the lowest temperature observed in the contiguous United States so far this season, and the lowest since a reading of 29 below zero was reported at Saranac Lake, New York, on March 6.

In Big Piney, Wyoming, the mercury bottomed out at a record low of 22 below zero Friday.

Even the West Coast has felt the chill. Oakland, California tied a record low Thursday morning when they fell to 35 degrees. Record lows were also tied or set Thanksgiving Day in Montague, California (13 degrees), and Quillayute, Washington (23 degrees). King City, about 90 miles southeast of San Jose, also tied a record low Friday morning (25 degrees).

Several daily record lows were set Saturday morning, including Burns, Oregon, which dipped to 15 below zero degrees. In California, Sacramento (27 degrees) and Stockton (28 degrees-tie) also set daily record lows.

On Sunday morning Burns, Oregon tied the record low of 15 below zero. Chadron, Nebraska also tied the record low for the day when the mercury dropped to 1 below zero and Montague, California set a daily record low of 8 degrees.

Ice Reports

Freezing rain first developed in the early morning hours of Thanksgiving in parts of northeast Colorado, eastern Wyoming, Nebraska and southern Minnesota and spread southward along with the advance of cold air.

Friday and Saturday, freezing rain zeroed in on a part of the southern Plains from eastern New Mexico to West Texas, central and western Oklahoma, as well as further northeast across central and eastern Kansas to western Missouri.

The freezing rain led to damaging accumulations of glaze ice late Friday through much of Saturday over portions of the Texas Panhandle and the western half of Oklahoma.

The most significant ice accumulations appeared to be across the western side the Oklahoma City metro area, westward to roughly the U.S. Highway 183 corridor. In the El Reno and Eakly areas in Oklahoma, numerous photos shared via social media indicated that 1 to 1 1/2 inches of ice had accumulated on trees and other surfaces.

Emergency management in Enid, Oklahoma, reported 3/4 to 1 inch of ice accretion on trees and power lines. Half an inch of ice glaze built up in Pampa and Claude, both in the Texas Panhandle, according to the National Weather Service in Amarillo.

Automated ice accumulation sensors recorded 0.26 inch of ice accumulation in Winfield, Kansas, and 0.18 inch in Hutchinson and Wichita, Kansas, Friday into Saturday morning.

Power was knocked out in all of Rockwell City, Iowa (population: 1,709) early Friday morning thanks to strong winds downing power lines loaded with about 3/8 inch of accumulated ice. Power lines were also reportedly downed near Lariat, Texas, Thanksgiving night. 

Other significant ice accumulation reports Friday included 3/8 inch on sidewalks in Blaine, Kansas, and 0.3 inch in both Beattie, Kansas and Wellington, Texas. Up to 1/4 inch of ice accumulation was reported in Omaha, Nebraska.

Sunday morning, significant icing impacted central Kansas with numerous reports of scattered power outages and tree damage. Widespread power outages occurred in Hutchinson, according to a National Weather Service report. In White City, ice accumulated to an estimated diameter of three quarters of an inch on power lines and tree branches.

Snow Reports

Snow started to pile up on Tuesday across portions of the interior Northwest, Sierra Nevada and far northern Rockies. Some freezing rain was also reported in the Columbia Basin. Snow was reported in parts of Montana, Wyoming and Idaho on Wednesday.

Bend, Oregon, reported 10 to 16 inches of new snow Tuesday night, with snowfall rates of 4 inches in 3 hours. This is quite impressive for this relatively dry plateau to the east of the Oregon Cascades, which only averages about 24 inches of snow each season. This heavy snow brought traffic to a standstill on U.S. 97 Tuesday night.

Farther south, up to 23 inches of snow fell around Crater Lake, which The Weather Channel recently named the snowiest place in Oregon.

Up to a foot of snow in the Sierra Nevada snarled traffic on Interstate 80 over Donner Summit in California Tuesday, as well. Up to 22 inches of snow was reported at Kirkwood Mountain Resort south of Lake Tahoe on the California side of the state line. On the Nevada side, Mount Rose Ski Area tallied 10 inches of snow, the top reported total in Nevada as of Wednesday afternoon.

Here are the top snowfall totals of at least 6 inches by state, so far:

• Nevada: 25 inches estimated on Tent Mountain, about 30 miles east of Elko
• Oregon: 23 inches near Crater Lake
• California: 22 inches at Kirkwood Mountain Resort
• Colorado: 19 inches at Wolf Creek Pass (72-hour total through 7 a.m. Saturday)
• Idaho: 14 inches in Buhl, about 100 miles southeast of Boise
• Wyoming: 14 inches at Sinks Canyon, near Lander in central Wyoming
• Montana: 8.5 inches near Clancy, which is just south of Helena
• New Mexico: 8 inches at Taos Ski Area

Lighter snow fell on Thanksgiving Day in parts of South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. It was the first accumulating snow of the season in the Twin Cities, the seventh latest such occurrence on record, there.

By Friday night, what little remained of Cara's snowfall was mainly confined to the Colorado Rockies and High Plains of western Kansas, as most of the precipitation over the Plains was either sleet or freezing rain.

(MORE: State-by-State Impacts)

Meteorologists Linda Lam, Jon Erdman, Quincy Vagell, Nick Wiltgen and Chris Dolce contributed to this report.

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