textproduct: Hastings

KEY MESSAGES

- Dangerously cold temperatures, along with light to moderate snow, expected tonight into Saturday. Total accumulations will range from around 1" north of I-80, to around 6" along the Highway 24 corridor in north central Kansas.

- Snow will end for most of south central Nebraska Saturday morning, but linger across north central Kansas into Saturday afternoon and evening.

- Besides the snow, dangerously cold temperatures will persist through Monday morning. Coldest readings are expected to be Sunday night into Monday morning at -15 to -25 degrees. The rest of the weekend will be around 0 to -15 degrees, with only modest improvements for the afternoon.

- Next week is forecast to be mainly dry. Temperatures will return closer to normal by midweek, but lingering snowcover will hinder a real significant warmup.

DISCUSSION

Issued at 200 PM CST Fri Jan 23 2026

The worst travel conditions will be late this evening/overnight through Saturday afternoon.

Will hit the main points regarding the ongoing winter weather event/headlines up front:

- Overall trend is for somewhat lower snow totals, especially across south central Nebraska since the daytime snowfall has struggled to materialize. This is likely due to the overall weak lift struggling to overcome dry low level air - as evident by surface dew points in the double digits below zero. A 1048mb high pressure was recently analyzed near Sioux Falls, and this is quite strong, even by late Jan. standards. This high pressure is being pretty effective at funneling a continuous stream of drier air in from the N/NE. This will be overcome somewhat tonight as stronger, deeper ascent overspreads the region - but rates will still remain light.

- Snow amounts will likely range from around 1", or less, along and N of I-80, to 1-4" between Hwy 6 and Hwy 136, to 4-6" in Rooks, Osborne, and Mitchell Counties in north central Kansas. Even these southern counties may experience a decent N-S gradient. Accumulations should be fairly efficient, once they get going, owing to deep snow growth zone and light winds to limit fracturing and compaction. Very high snow to liquid ratios of around 20:1 (possibly higher) should be common.

- No changes have been made to the ongoing headlines with this forecast package. With that said, I do expect we'll need an adjustment to end the Winter Weather Advisory and the Winter Storm Warning considerably earlier than the current 6AM Sunday expiration time. Yes, we could see some very light snow linger into Saturday night, but appears the brunt of accumulations, even in these far S zones, will wrap up Saturday afternoon and/or evening.

- No changes to the existing Cold Weather Advisory, either. It's a headline that is somewhat marginal to keep in place during the daytime hours, but rather than run the same headline off and on over the next 3 days - felt it's simpler from a messaging standpoint to continue it through Monday AM, as is. The weak winds tonight into Saturday also add to the "marginality" of it, but this is by far the worst stretch of cold air we've seen thus far in an otherwise unseasonably warm winter. We are likely past the worst of the wind cills of this event (which occurred this morning), but Sunday night into Monday morning will see the coldest air temperatures amidst clearing skies over fresh snowcover. Thus, even light bouts of wind will be brutal and it's a new school/work week.

Haven't spent a whole lot of time looking at the extended given the active short term...but overall, it appears rather dry and quiet. Temperatures don't look to be quite as warm as they once did a few days ago - likely owing to new and VERY WIDESPREAD (look at the national watch/warning map...this is a HUGE system with far reaching impacts in area AND magnitude) snow cover. However, we should at least get back closer to freezing/normal Tuesday into Wednesday.

AVIATION /18Z TAFS THROUGH 18Z SATURDAY/

Issued at 1149 AM CST Fri Jan 23 2026

For KGRI/KEAR Airports:

Main concerns are the impacts of light snow over the next 18-24 hours. Overall, this continues to look like a long duration, light snow type of event, with impacts to CIGs and VSBYs being primarily MVFR. There is about a 4-6 hour window tonight, generally from around 05Z to 10Z, where snow may become heavy enough for VSBYs to fall down to high-end IFR, and perhaps near IFR/MVFR criteria for CIGs. However, outside of this window, mainly 1500-3000FT CIGs and 3-6SM VSBYs are expected, even in areas of off and on light snow. Confidence: Medium.

Winds will start off the period out of the NE around 8-13kt this afternoon, then weaken overnight. Light and vrbl winds are forecast for Sat AM. Confidence: High.

GID WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

NE...Cold Weather Advisory until noon CST Monday for NEZ039>041- 046>049-060>064-072>077-082>087. Winter Weather Advisory until 6 AM CST Sunday for NEZ082>087. KS...Cold Weather Advisory until noon CST Monday for KSZ005>007- 017>019. Winter Weather Advisory until 6 AM CST Sunday for KSZ005>007. Winter Storm Warning until 6 AM CST Sunday for KSZ017>019.