Nebraska Snow Plow Tracker and Road Conditions

Q: Where can I see where the plows are in Nebraska?

NDOT calls it Plow Tracker, and it runs at https://plows.nebraska.gov/index.html. NDOT describes it this way: "Plow Cameras show current and historical photos taken by cameras mounted on snow plows."

Q: What is Nebraska 511?

Nebraska 511 is Nebraska Department of Transportation's own travel information service. Nebraska 511 carries traffic cameras, a phone app called Nebraska 511 and a phone line at 511. NDOT describes it this way: "NDOT’s 511 Traveler Information website is provided to assist motorists in their decision making on Nebraska roadways."

Q: How do I report a road problem in Nebraska?

NDOT takes reports at https://dot.nebraska.gov/contact-us/. The travel information line is 511.

Trucks and plow cameras

What the state publishes

Live truck positions and plow cameras

Nebraska 511

The map

NDOT, Nebraska Department of Transportation

7

Words on the map

each one defined by the state

Yes

Roadside cameras

on the same map, pointed at the road itself

The answer

Where the plows are in Nebraska

Trucks and plow cameras

NDOT publishes plow positions on Nebraska 511 together with photographs taken from cameras mounted on the trucks.

A reader can see a truck move and then look at what its driver is looking at, which is the closest thing any state publishes to standing at the roadside.

What the state calls it: Plow Tracker
Where it lives: Nebraska 511
Shows a last pass: Yes. The layer records when a truck was last down a road, not only where one is now.
By phone: 511

Open Plow Tracker

NDOT describes it in its own words, from Nebraska 511 Travel Information Map, in-map help text for the Plow Tracker layer, Nebraska Department of Transportation, read September 23, 2026.

Plow Cameras show current and historical photos taken by cameras mounted on snow plows.

Nebraska 511 Travel Information Map, in-map help text for the Plow Tracker layer, Nebraska Department of Transportation, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source

The map

What Nebraska 511 shows

Nebraska 511 carries traffic cameras, a phone app called Nebraska 511 and a phone line at 511. NDOT describes it this way: "NDOT’s 511 Traveler Information website is provided to assist motorists in their decision making on Nebraska roadways."

Conditions on any state map are reported rather than measured. A plow operator or a trooper enters what they saw, and the map carries it until somebody enters something else, so a colour is a description of the road a while ago on the stretch the person was looking at.

Nebraska publishes both halves of the question: Nebraska 511 colours highways with seven winter condition words from Seasonal through Impassable, and its Plow Tracker layer puts individual plow trucks on the same map with their heading, the material they are spreading, a trail of where they have been, and photographs taken from cameras on the trucks.

The map: Nebraska 511
Cameras: Roadside cameras
Phone app: Nebraska 511
Phone line: 511

Nebraska 511, Nebraska Department of Transportation

NDOT’s 511 Traveler Information website is provided to assist motorists in their decision making on Nebraska roadways.

How to view event information, Nebraska 511 help pages, Nebraska Department of Transportation, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source

The words

What Nebraska calls each state of a road

NDOT runs 7 steps on Nebraska 511, from Seasonal to Impassable. NDOT publishes a definition beside them.

These are Nebraska’s words and they stop at the state line. There is no national scale: the 33 states that publish a legend use 166 different labels between them, and only 17 publish what their own labels mean. A phrase that means one thing here means something else, or nothing, one state over.

NDOT’s own labels, in the order NDOT lists them. The second column is the state’s own definition.
What the map says	What NDOT says it means
Seasonal	Not defined
Partially Covered	Frost, ice, sleet/slush, snow or a mixture of precipitation is causing the roadway to be partially covered (up to 50 percent). Drivers may experience periods when roadway markings are difficult to see. With continued precipitation, the roadway surface may become slick, snow packed and rutted.
Partially Covered w/Ice	Not defined
Completely Covered	The roadway is completely covered with precipitation (i.e. frost, ice, sleet/slush, snow or a mixture). Roadway markings are obscured making it difficult to differentiate between the roadway and its surroundings. These conditions can make travel difficult and hazardous.
Completely Covered w/Ice	Not defined
Travel Not Advised	Not defined
Impassable	A road that is impassable is blocked by snow or vehicles.

Read from NDOT’s own legend on September 23, 2026.

When a road shuts

Who closes a road in Nebraska

NDOT's worst two road condition words are Impassable and Closed, and its definitions page separates them: impassable means blocked, closed means travel is restricted by something physically put across the road.

A road that is impassable is blocked by snow or vehicles. A road that is closed has travel restricted by barricades, fence, gate, equipment/vehicles or other physical means.

How to view event information, Nebraska 511 help pages, Nebraska Department of Transportation, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source

A closure is a different thing from a bad condition, and it is the one entry on the map that carries the force of law behind it. Driving past a closure device is an offence in most states and a rescue bill in several. The map is where the closure is published, and the state also takes reports of conditions from the public.

A red and white striped gate padlocked shut across a two lane forest highway with a ROAD CLOSED sign at its centre, photographed at road level along the wet double yellow line — A seasonal gate shut across a state highway, with no snow on the ground yet. Closures like this one go on by the calendar rather than by the storm, and a driver who checks the map in November finds the road already gone. That is the quietest and most useful thing these maps do, and it happens weeks before anybody looks for a plow. “The gates are closed (49097728041)”, Oregon Department of Transportation, CC BY 2.0

The good part

Nebraska lets the public name its snowplows

6 states run a naming contest, the winning names go on the trucks, and in a state that publishes positions the named trucks then turn up on the map under those names. It is the most reliably delightful thing any transport department does.

Name-a-Snowplow Competition

NDOT runs the competition for Nebraska students in grades K through 6 and says it is in its sixth year. Winners receive a mini snowplow branded with the selected name, a visit from NDOT plow crews, and Name-a-Snowplow signs for home and school. NDOT publishes photo galleries of the winners rather than a plain list of names, so no winning name is recorded here.

This fun competition is a great way to educate students about winter safety and snowplow drivers, who play a vital role in keeping our roads safe during the winter.

How to view event information, Nebraska 511 help pages, Nebraska Department of Transportation, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source

Name-a-Snowplow Competition, NDOT

Nebraska snow plow tracker questions

Does Nebraska have a snow plow tracker?

Where can I see where the plows are in Nebraska?

What is Nebraska 511?

What do the road condition colours mean in Nebraska?

Who closes a road in Nebraska?

NDOT's worst two road condition words are Impassable and Closed, and its definitions page separates them: impassable means blocked, closed means travel is restricted by something physically put across the road. NDOT puts it this way: "A road that is impassable is blocked by snow or vehicles. A road that is closed has travel restricted by barricades, fence, gate, equipment/vehicles or other physical means."

Does Nebraska let the public name its snowplows?

Yes. NDOT runs Name-a-Snowplow Competition at https://dot.nebraska.gov/safety/name-a-snowplow-contest/. NDOT runs the competition for Nebraska students in grades K through 6 and says it is in its sixth year. Winners receive a mini snowplow branded with the selected name, a visit from NDOT plow crews, and Name-a-Snowplow signs for home and school. NDOT publishes photo galleries of the winners rather than a plain list of names, so no winning name is recorded here.

How do I report a road problem in Nebraska?

A plow truck seen from behind in heavy snowfall casting a wide plume of snow off the left shoulder of an interstate, with one dark treated lane running away to the right — The same event from behind: the truck throwing its wing load onto the shoulder, and beside it the dark strip of lane it has already been down. That contrast between the wet black lane and the white one is the physical thing a road map is reporting when it changes a segment from snow covered to wet, and it is why the colour on the map can be right and the road can still be slick. “Snowplow on Interstate 5 in Everett, Washington”, SounderBruce, CC BY-SA 4.0

Plow trackers in other states

Nebraska studded tire datesWhen studs are legal on Nebraska roads, and the penalty when they are not.Mountain pass conditionsThe passes that close, and what each state posts when they do.Studded tire laws by stateThe dates studs are legal, state by state.Lake effect snowWhere the bands set up and what they do to a commute.Plow trackers in every stateWhich states show the trucks, which show only the roads, and what their legends say.

Nebraska read September 23, 2026 from How to view event information, Nebraska 511 help pages, Nebraska Department of Transportation, linked above. Departments replace these services between seasons and a layer that ran last winter may not run this one, so NDOT’s own page is the one that governs. Conditions shown on it are reported by people and lag the road. Every state is on the snow plow tracker hub.