Dorchester Times: Looking Back: The Record-Setting Christmas Blizzard Of 2009

Wednesday, December 12, 2018

Looking Back: The Record-Setting Christmas Blizzard Of 2009

The blizzard of Christmas 2009 was one for the record books.

Not even Bing Crosby would have been too happy.

Climatologists at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln confirm that 2009's snowfall was the most snow ever recorded in the Dorchester area on Christmas.

The Lincoln Journal Star reported that December 2009 was the Lincoln area's snowiest December ever, with a total 23 inches on average.

Half of that came on Christmas day.

The Christmas blizzard of 2009 brought an estimated 11 inches of snow to Dorchester.

The news wires were abuzz, reporting that most eastern Nebraska residents had lost electricity during the storm.

Highways were closed and rural residents were literally trapped in their homes as country roads were drifted shut.

The following pictures were taken in Dorchester in late December 2009, sent to us by Times readers. (Click on the pictures for a better view.)

While many of you want a white Christmas, let's hope we don't see a repeat of Christmas 2009 in the near future.

See the Dorchester forecast here. For now, it appears we are in the clear as the area forecast calls for clear skies and mild temps on Dec. 25.

9 comments:

AnonymousDecember 28, 2009 at 7:29 AM
Glad I don't live in Thayer County. Some of those people were out of power all Christmas weekend. Let's hope the New Year will be better.
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cjDecember 28, 2009 at 2:15 PM
is that alaska or nebraska???!!
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Al RoperDecember 28, 2009 at 3:09 PM
I bet this makes all those California Longhorns jealous. (Not!)
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AnonymousDecember 28, 2009 at 3:50 PM
I would like to say, we are having what I would call a NORMAL Nebraska winter. Just like the ones of the 50's, 60's and early 70's. If you liked this year, wait until you have endured the next say.....30! It is all a big cycle, and we are in the bigging of a new wet cycle. I predict a spring flood!

This is the real Nebraska I grew up in!
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AnonymousDecember 28, 2009 at 3:59 PM
Thanks Ken Siemek
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AnonymousDecember 28, 2009 at 4:06 PM
Yes, but if you knew what was going to happen to California over the next 4 years you would be heading east. Anywhere east.
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East CoasterDecember 28, 2009 at 9:32 PM
I agree that this weather is similar to the climate of my youth. (i.e. 60's, 70's and 80's)However, I would caution anyone about moving to the East Coast. Too many problems here also. By the way, I worked with Ken Siemek at KOLN/KGIN TV in the early 80's. The blizzard of 1983 was not fun. My lips turned purple while shooting video footage. Bring on the Tom & Jerry's!
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AnonymousDecember 13, 2018 at 11:30 AM
My parents recalled the Blizzard of 1949. Missed that 1 by 2 years!!
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Dorchester: A Good Little Family Town

Dorchester, Nebraska (est. population 630) is located in northern Saline county. Close in proximity to Interstate 80, Dorchester is only 25 minutes from the state capital of Lincoln (est. population 250,000) and about 55 minutes from Omaha (metro population 725,000).

Dorchester's median resident age is 37 years. In 2005, Dorchester had a median family income of approximately $35,600. The median house value was about $63,000. About 95 percent of Dorchester residents commute to work via Interstate and highways.

The village has a quality public school, which received a $4.1 million expansion and modernization in 2008; it offers a small classrooms and individualized attention. Total enrollment of grades K-12 is around 230-250 students.

Ancestries of the Dorchester area are primarily German (42.4%), Czech (24.9%), Irish (12.5%), English (5.4%), and Dutch (4.9%).

Dorchester Historical Facts

* On July 4, 1871, the railroad reached Dorchester.
* Incorporated in 1881, Dorchester's population grew from 200 to 500 by 1882.
* In 1882, Dorchester had 90 buildings, 35 of which were businesses or public facilities. Brick buildings lined both sides of Washington Avenue for two blocks.
* Dorchester's longest-running newspaper was The Dorchester Star, which was published until the late 1940s.
* By 1889, Dorchester's population is said to have reached 800, while the town housed an opera house, a two-story brick schoolhouse with a bell tower, and four churches.
* By the 1910s, Dorchester had electricity, a water tower and a fire department.
* Dorchester's main arteries, Highways 6 and 33, were graveled in the 1940s.
* Dorchester's first irrigation well was drilled on Chris Weber's farm and rural electrification was finished following WWII.

A Village with History

Dorchester is one of the "alphabet towns" on the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad line built west from Lincoln. The town site was selected for its pleasant location in the northern part of Saline County, about eight miles west of Crete. This situation is an attractive one, being on the level prairie land, midway between the West Blue River and Turkey Creek. The first named stream is three miles north, and the latter about the same distance south from the town. Dorchester was platted in 1870 and incorporated in 1881. The name "Dorchester" came from either for a suburb of Boston by that name or a town in England. No one is sure. Two of the very first settlers were James Seely and Edward McIntyre, who both made Dorchester their permanent home.

Dorchester: In The Beginning

Here is a look at Dorchester around 1890, less than a decade after its official incorporation, as documented by Andreas' History of the State of Nebraska:
* POPULATION: "About 300, and is made up of a substantial and progressive class of citizens, who are moral and industrious. ... The town grew but very little until the year 1879, for the reason that Pleasant Hill, on Turkey Creek, a short distance south, was the county seat and naturally drew a trade for quite a large scope of country."
* BUSINESS: "The business and professional interests of the town are represented by three general merchandise stores, two drug, one grocery, one furniture, two hardware, and two millinery stores, one bank, two restaurants, two hotels, three livery stables, a post office, one newspaper office, two elevators, two lumber yards, two coal yards, two blacksmith shops, two lawyers and four physicians."
* SCHOOL: "The schoolhouse is a good one. The schoolhouse was built in 1872, since which time the public schools have been continually kept up. The present schoolhouse is 24' x 40' in size, two stories high. The school is graded and consists of three departments. The house is found too small, and arrangements will soon be made to increase its size."
* CHURCHES: "There are three substantial churches."
* HOMES: "The residence portion of the village is made up of neat houses of different styles of architecture, but none of them very large."
* NEWSPAPER: "The Dorchester Star, which was established August 21, 1881, by H. C. Bittenbender, who edited it until January 19, 1882, when he sold it to Ryerson & Bullock, the present proprietors. The Star is a bright weekly paper, five-column quarto, in size, and is Republican in politics."