Dorchester Times: Ice-ageddon? Major Storm Could Paralyze Area Sunday, Monday

Thursday, January 12, 2017

Ice-ageddon? Major Storm Could Paralyze Area Sunday, Monday

(UPDATE: As of 10:30 a.m. Sunday:

*ICE STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 3 AM CST TUESDAY...

* TIMING...PERIODS OF LIGHT FREEZING RAIN ARE EXPECTED TODAY.
THE FREEZING RAIN INTENSITY IS EXPECTED TO INCREASE LATE
TONIGHT AND INTO MONDAY MORNING. TEMPERATURES WILL CLIMB TO
NEAR OR SLIGHTLY ABOVE FREEZING ON MONDAY MORNING INTO THE
AFTERNOON POTENTIALLY ALLOWING FOR A MIX OF FREEZING RAIN AND
RAIN. THE INTENSITY WILL DIMINISH BY MONDAY AFTERNOON WITH THE
LIGHT MIX POTENTIALLY ENDING AS A PERIOD OF LIGHT SNOW MONDAY
NIGHT.

* ICE ACCUMULATIONS...SIGNIFICANT ICE ACCUMULATIONS OF A QUARTER
TO HALF INCH OR MORE ARE POSSIBLE FROM THIS STORM SYSTEM.

* IMPACT...HAZARDOUS OR IMPOSSIBLE TRAVEL DUE TO ICY ROADS.
SIDEWALKS AND PARKING LOTS WILL BE VERY SLIPPERY AS WELL.
SCATTERED POWER OUTAGES ARE POSSIBLE. DAMAGE TO TREE LIMBS AND
OTHER OUTDOOR OBJECTS IS POSSIBLE.

* OTHER PRECIPITATION TYPES...SLEET MAY MIX WITH THE FREEZING
RAIN AT TIMES...WITH LITTLE OR NO ACCUMULATION EXPECTED. A
DUSTING OF SNOW MAY FALL AS THE STORM ENDS ON MONDAY NIGHT...
AGAIN WITH LITTLE OR NO ACCUMULATION EXPECTED.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

AN ICE STORM WARNING MEANS SEVERE WINTER WEATHER CONDITIONS ARE
EXPECTED OR OCCURRING. SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF ICE ACCUMULATIONS
WILL MAKE TRAVEL DANGEROUS OR IMPOSSIBLE. TRAVEL IS STRONGLY
DISCOURAGED. COMMERCE WILL LIKELY BE SEVERELY IMPACTED. IF YOU
MUST TRAVEL... KEEP AN EXTRA FLASHLIGHT... FOOD... AND WATER IN
YOUR VEHICLE IN CASE OF AN EMERGENCY. ICE ACCUMULATIONS AND WINDS
WILL LIKELY LEAD TO SNAPPED POWER LINES AND FALLING TREE BRANCHES
THAT ADD TO THE DANGER.)

Before it even arrives, some are calling it "Ice-ageddon."

A storm system that is brewing along the west coast could cause big problems for the Midwest early next week. Cathy Zapotocny is a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Omaha and says there is a lot of concern with this storm system because it packs a lot of moisture. The temperature in Nebraska is very cold right now and we have a potential of a wintry mix of precipitation, icing and snow.

Zapotocny says, “The storm system will be affecting the area later on Sunday, into Monday and Monday night. That would be the time frame we are most concerned with and that is when the storm system would be coming in and that is when the greatest amount of influx of moisture and the potential for that icing and snow accumulations will be coming in. Parts of the area will see rain but the icing is what we are most concerned about.”

She says significant icing means a half-inch or more. This system could impact a wide area, including the Dorchester area.

Some weather models show icing is expected in eastern Nebraska with snowfall in the central and western parts of the state.

Stay tuned to the Dorchester area weather forecast, available here on the Times.

Developing...

No comments:

Post a Comment

Village Dweller checks all reader comments to determine if they are appropriate for print.

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."