Thunderstorms, Potentially Severe Overnight Tonight

After a very foggy start, clouds remained until early afternoon in many areas, but then the sun broke through and the afternoon was quite nice with highs in the 80’s.
But a combination of weather factors will likely produce scattered thunderstorms overnight tonight, some which may be strong to severe with large hail, damaging winds, and perhaps even an isolated tornado.

A nearly stationary front extends from northeastern Wyoming through northern Nebraska to southeastern Iowa. A dry-line extends from a low over central Wyoming into eastern Colorado, with another weak low over east-central Colorado. An upper trough is moving eastward from the Intermountain Region. All of these features, couples with a warm and moist southeast flow, will likely produce scattered storms over Greater Nebraska overnight, with some severe weather possible. Showers and thunderstorms are already developing over northeastern Colorado in the vicinity of the dry-line, and these will likely move eastward into Greater Nebraska later this evening.

Otherwise, expect mostly cloudy skies with lows near 60.

By Wednesday, a cool front will approach from the northwest and move through during the early afternoon. Isolated storms may accompany the front, especially during the morning hours. Otherwise, skies will be partly sunny and it will turn quite breezy with northwesterly winds gusting to 30mph during the afternoon. Highs will be in the 70’s.

The weather for the remainder of the week will be governed by another frontal system dropping down from the north. It appears this front will become nearly stationary over the Central Plains, but exactly where that happens will have a major effect on our weather from Friday through Monday. The front will separate much cooler air to the north from much warmer air to the south, and if the front sets up right over Nebraska there could be a very large difference in temperatures from north to south with highs perhaps in the 50’s and 60’s north and 80’s south. But if the front sets up to the north or south of the area, cooler or warmer temperatures than are currently predicted will occur. Additionally, the front could spark thunderstorms so stay tuned to later forecasts.

Mike