textproduct: Hastings

KEY MESSAGES

- Showers and isolated thunderstorms are expected overnight into the afternoon hours today. No severe weather is expected.

- Widespread freeze and frost conditions may develop tonight into Wednesday morning with low temperatures in the 20s and 30s expected.

- Frost and/or freeze conditions continue to be a concern each night/morning through Saturday morning.

UPDATE

Issued at 146 AM CDT Tue Apr 28 2026

Northerly winds are across south central and central Nebraska and north central Kansas with a surface high across the region. Low temperatures overnight will range from the low 30s to the low 40s. Locations along and northwest of a line from Ord, NE to Lexington, NE may briefly reach freezing late overnight into the early morning hours. Freezing and frost conditions will be hindered by cloud cover so confidence was not high enough to issue any freeze and/or frost headlines overnight. The cooler air will remain across the area today with high temperatures only in the 40s and 50s. Rain showers with isolated thunderstorms are expected to move across the area overnight and throughout the day today. Skies will be less cloudy tonight with light winds. A surface high pressure will still impact the region tonight with temperatures expected to drop into the mid 20s to mid 30s. Although there is some uncertainty with temperatures due to the remaining cloud cover, there is fairly high confidence (70%) that locations northwest of the Tri-Cities area will reach freezing. Freeze and/or frost products may be issued for tonight later today. Frost and/or freeze conditions continue to be a concern each night/morning through Saturday morning.

DISCUSSION

Issued at 437 PM CDT Mon Apr 27 2026

-- FORECAST CHANGES OF NOTE/BIG PICTURE COMMENTS: - No truly "major" changes of note from previous forecast issued early this AM.

- As already alluded to in the Key Messages above, we are actually in the midst of a fairly "ideal" weather pattern for the next several days: seasonably-cool with intermittent rain chances and NO higher-end fire weather setups OR chances for severe storms. The only folks who might complain are the "warm weather lovers", as no days with 80+ degree highs will occur anytime soon.

-- 7-DAY FORECAST CHRONOLOGICAL RUNDOWN (through Mon. May 4): - CURRENT/RECENT WEATHER SCENE AS OF 33O PM: First, a quick recap of rainfall over the last 48 hours: Back on Thursday, this forecaster mentioned that MOST of our CWA would hopefully pick up at least 0.50-1.00". Fortunately, MOST places in fact did. However, as always there were lower exceptions on either side. On the low end, a few western and also southeastern counties (particularly much of Dawson/Gosper/Nuckolls/Clay/Thayer) fell solidly short of 0.50...but at least mostly picked up at least 0.25". On the higher end of things, a stripe running very roughly from west of Hastings to north of Aurora picked up at least 1.50" (localized 3"), while parts of several of our KS counties also saw at least 1.50-2.00". All in all, decent totals, but it sure would have been nice if EVERYBODY had gotten at least 0.50".

On to the here and now: The last of the spotty showers/weak thunderstorms from the weekend system either dissipated over/departed east of our forecast area (CWA) several hours ago now, with this afternoon featuring dry conditions under skies ranging from cloudy/mostly cloudy across roughly the northeastern 2/3rds of our CWA, to partly cloudy (even pockets of mostly sunny) within our southwestern 1/3rd. Its been breezy to somewhat-windy area wide, with sustained northwesterly speeds commonly 15-25 MPH/gusts 25-35 MPH. High temperatures are on track to range from upper 40s-low 50s far north-northeast, to a mix of mid-upper 50s across most of our Nebraska counties, to low-mid 60s mainly in our KS counties along with Furnas County area.

In the big picture of the mid-upper levels, water vapor satellite and short-term model data clearly show us "in between" disturbances, with the departing one exiting over IA/MO, while the next main shortwave trough is working its way through the CA/NV/AZ border area...with weaker "ripples" extending out ahead of it into the Central Rockies.

- THIS EVENING-OVERNIGHT: Fairly high confidence that our entire CWA makes it through at least midnight dry, as breezy winds gradually subside and turn more northerly. Then, between midnight and sunrise Tuesday (but mainly after 3-4 AM), a weak upper wave arriving from the west will generate at least a narrow, generally west-east oriented band of chilly light rain. There is some uncertainty on the "exact" placement of this rain band, and rain chances (PoPs) are likely too broad in north-south extent, but consensus of latest models favors the western half of our Nebraska CWA for the highest chances for at least few hundredths of pre-sunrise rain. Briefly touching on precip type, we are expecting this precipitation to be ALL RAIN within our CWA, but please note that some slushy snow could mix in with the rain not all that far west-northwest of our CWA (out over the Sandhills), so again, this will be a chilly rain. As for temps, am counting on a mix of continued low clouds and then quite a few mid-high clouds arriving from the west (especially post-midnight) to keep things from "tanking" too far...and some places could see lows reached closer to midnight with steady/very slightly rising temps thereafter as clouds/precip arrives. If anything nudged up lows very slightly from previous, aiming most of the CWA between 35-39 degrees. Although this is technically cold enough for at least limited frost development (especially far northwest), the increasing clouds and/or rain moving in should largely prove unfavorable, and we don't have any frost in the official forecast.

- TUESDAY DAYTIME: It's becoming pretty clear that this will be the overall-coolest and (in various places) overall-wettest daytime of the week. Aloft, the next low amplitude shortwave trough swings directly through the Central Plains, driving continued chances for at least scattered light rain showers especially within our Nebraska counties (lower chances in KS). We're certainly not talking big amounts (most places no more than 0.05-0.20"), but we'll take what we can get! A rogue rumble of thunder cannot be ruled out, but with such meager instability have omitted from official forecast. Temperature-wise, if anything nudged down highs very slightly from previous, with most of our CWA (especially Nebraska) aimed 49-54, and the majority of any mid- upper 50s focused in KS. Finally, it will not be as windy as today, with speeds mainly around 10 MPH out of the north to northeast.

- TUESDAY EVENING-OVERNIGHT: Right away early in the evening (mainly pre-nightfall) we could still see some lingering light rain showers in our north- northeast zones, and perhaps a few showers sneaking into our far southwestern zones out of southwestern NE. However, high confidence that it's dry through the night most all areas (especially beyond 10 PM). Winds will only average around 5 MPH or less from a mainly northerly or westerly direction. That leaves cloud cover (and resultant temperatures) as the "million dollar question" that could ultimately make-or-break the development of frost and/or slightly sub-freezing temps. Unfortunately, there is some uncertainty here, but our latest forecast is geared toward "mostly clear skies with patches of lower stratus here or there"). Assuming this plays out, temps should have no problem dropping well into the 31-36 range most places, with areas of frost a decent bet. That being said, IF low stratus remains more stubborn, it could remain a few-to- several degrees warmer. Given these modest uncertainties, refrained from issuing any Frost Advisories and/or Freeze Warnings on this shift, but these will be strongly considered within the next 24 hours. One one final note, we could also perhaps see some patchy fog development, but have kept this out of the official forecast for now.

- WEDNESDAY DAYTIME-THURSDAY NIGHT: Aloft, our area will reside under west-northwesterly flow, as a few fairly weak disturbances brush through our area. At the surface, the main feature will be a weak cold front dropping through from the north on Thursday. Precipitation-wise, while most of Wed daytime will remain dry, isolated showers/weak thunderstorms could drift into mainly our northern/western counties late Wed afternoon into Wed night, with additional chances for isolated/scattered activity targeting mainly our southern/southwestern CWA Thursday daytime-evening before rain chances vacate southward late.

Temperature-wise, highs both days are fairly similar (mainly low-mid 60s). As for overnight lows, Wed night appears a touch warmer given more clouds and areas of rain, with lows mainly upper 30s-low 40s and thus minimal frost concerns. However, Thurs night-Fri AM looks chillier (lows mainly low-mid 30s) and perhaps more favorable for frost and/or slightly sub-freezing temps.

- FRIDAY-SATURDAY: Fairly high confidence in our going dry forecast, as we reside under rather benign north-northwesterly flow aloft (to the west- southwest of a large-scale low centered over the eastern Great Lakes region). Friday looks to be our final "coolish" day with highs low-mid 60s, with Saturday then turning about 10 degrees warmer (mainly low-mid 70s) as breezes turn southerly. One final opportunity for frost development could arise Fri night-Sat AM before the warm-up commences.

- SUNDAY-MONDAY: While latest ECMWF/GFS suggests that most of these two days will be dry, they also both show some spotty light shower potential mainly Sunday-Sunday night as an upper wave passes through in the continued north-northwesterly flow aloft (our official forecast currently assigns most of these small rain chances to Sunday night). Temperature-wise, some guidance suggests our forecast could be aiming a touch too warm, but for now we are calling for highs mainly mid 70s both days, with MAYBE our far south-southwestern counties touching 80.

AVIATION /12Z TAFS THROUGH 12Z WEDNESDAY/

Issued at 632 AM CDT Tue Apr 28 2026

For KGRI/KEAR Airports:

Low-end VFR to high-end MVFR ceilings are expected this morning then ceilings are expected to lower to MVFR this afternoon into this evening. VFR ceilings are expected around 03z. Showers and possibly a thunderstorm will impact the terminals through most of the afternoon. Winds will generally range from east to west.

GID WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

NE...None. KS...None.