textproduct: Hastings

KEY MESSAGES

- Unfortunately, every one of the next 7 days will likely have at least "near-critical" fire weather conditions within some/all of our forecast area (CWA). Although no particular days currently show obvious/high confidence signs of having outright-critical conditions that could require Warning issuance, it is quite probable that a few days will trend "worse" for fire weather as they get closer in time. (see separate Fire Weather section below for more details).

- Precipitation-wise: Our official forecast carries some rather low-confidence/small-ish chances for very light rain/sprinkles on Monday...and then perhaps a touch of rain and/or snow around Thurs night. However and unfortunately, the VAST MAJORITY of the next 7 days will surely remain dry, as we sink ever-deeper into a worsening drought situation.

- Temperature-wise: Although nothing quite as extreme as Saturday's historic early-season heat is apparent, these next 7 days will surely show quite a bit of variation. Highs are expected to range anywhere from the 50s (mainly Monday and Friday), to as warm as the 80s with maybe some limited low-90s on Wednesday.

DISCUSSION

Issued at 420 PM CDT Sun Mar 22 2026

-- FORECAST CHANGES/POSSIBLE WEAKNESSES/BIG PICTURE COMMENTS:

- As far as forecast changes/uncertainties go, nothing truly major to speak of as the main messages through the next 7 days clearly remain daily fire weather concerns to varying degrees, fairly large temperature swings, and VERY limited precipitation chances. That being said:

1) High temps for Wednesday jumped up a good 3-4 degrees from our early-AM forecast, with most of our CWA now aimed well into the 80s (at least near-record territory for March 25th at Grand Island/Hastings), and even some low 90s now forecast for some of our far southern-southwest counties.

2) As is unfortunately very common with wind speed forecasts especially more than 2 days out in time, our official forecast is almost certainly still too "tame" with wind speeds on various upcoming days including Tuesday/Wednesday, and only a modest increase in forecast speeds could easily bring critical fire weather conditions more into play (again, see dedicated Fire Weather section below for more details).

- Peeking slightly beyond our official 7-day forecast, there are still some "hopeful hints" that perhaps the March 30th-April 1st time frame could FINALLY bring some increased chances for a little more widespread rain (and maybe even some thunderstorm activity?) to our area.

-- 7-DAY FORECAST CHRONOLOGICAL DETAILS (through Sun. March 29) - CURRENT/RECENT WEATHER SITUATION AS OF 330 PM: Wow, what a difference a day makes! Although official CALENDAR DAY high temperatures will officially reflect very mild highs well into the 60s-70s (readings just after midnight last night), actual DAYTIME highs (under widespread sunshine this afternoon) are on track to top out "only" 53-62 degrees across most of our CWA...some 35-40 DEGREES COOLER than yesterday's historic early- season heat! Even so, we are still talking temperatures that are technically just above "normal" for the date. Besides the much cooler temperatures, the other obvious story today has been the blustery north winds, with much of the morning/early afternoon featuring gusts commonly up around 45 MPH (and a handful of gusts up to around 55 MPH). Fortunately though, and as expected, wind speeds over the last few hours have started to slowly trend downward, with the rest of the afternoon mainly featuring sustained speeds 20-30 MPH/gusts 25-35 MPH)...with the surface pressure gradient continuing to slowly relax as a ridge of high pressure noses closer to us out of the Dakotas/western MN. Fortunately for fire weather concerns, relative humidity (RH) has/will only drop as low as 25-35 percent at worst this afternoon...keeping us out of official critical (20%) territory.

In the mid-upper levels, water vapor satellite and short term model data confirm that the Central Plains resides under broad west-northwesterly flow aloft...directed between large- scale/lower amplitude ridging over the southwestern U.S., and troughing over the northeast U.S.

- THIS EVENING-OVERNIGHT: This evening, skies will remain clear/mostly clear as north- northeast winds steadily diminish, with speeds down to around only 10 MPH by 9-11 PM...then even lighter yet into the late night hours as direction gradually turns more easterly and southeasterly as the aforementioned surface ridge axis slides just to our east. Later in the night, mid and high level clouds will be on a steady increase from the west as as low amplitude disturbance approaches. It's not out of the question that a few sprinkles could even try falling shortly before sunrise in our extreme southwest (Furnas County area), but this is not in the official forecast. Low temps are a little tricky tonight, as it will be a "battle" between the lightening winds and the increasing cloud cover. However, no matter what this will probably be the coldest night of the next week, with lows aimed from upper 20s-low 30s north and northeast, to mid 30s south and southwest.

- MONDAY-MONDAY NIGHT: Our break from breezy-to-windy conditions is brief, as south- south southeast winds will increase especially during the afternoon as our pressure gradient tightens up. Sustained afternoon speeds will commonly be 15-25 MPH/gusts 20-35 MPH...overall-strongest within our western half (west of Hwy 281). In other departments, it will be a rather cloudy day with a considerable amount of mainly mid-level clouds based 5-10K ft. While most places will surely remain completely dry and/or see no more than a rogue sprinkle or two, have maintained some slight chances (20%) for light rain during the day for much of mainly our Nebraska counties, as various models suggest that a touch of light rain could make it to the surface despite the drier low levels. Would be VERY surprised to see any locations measure more than a few hundredths of an inch. Given the widespread clouds, there is a little uncertainty in high temps, as we MIGHT be aiming a touch too warm in some spots, but currently calling for mid-upper 50s most places, and any warmer low 60s confined to our far south-southwestern counties. As detailed in Fire Weather section below, a few of our extreme western counties will need closely monitored for possible marginally-critical conditions.

For Monday evening-overnight, left the forecast dry for now, but a few models hint that especially our KS counties could be prone to a few sprinkles. In the presence of fairly light but steady south-southeast breezes, low temps will not be quite as chilly as tonight...mainly mid-upper 30s most places.

- TUESDAY-TUESDAY NIGHT: Our next warm-up gets underway, as upper level high pressure/ridging over the southwestern U.S. starts to exert more of an influence into our part of the nation. High temps bounce back up into the low-mid 70s most places, with perhaps an 80 possible especially out in Furnas County. Southerly winds will be breezy and probably a bit stronger than our current forecast reflects, and think it's pretty likely that later forecast will trend toward gusts closer to 25 MPH than 20 MPH. As with daytime highs, overnight low temps also warm, with Tues night lows likely to hold up well into the 40s.

- WEDNESDAY-WEDNESDAY NIGHT: As touched on earlier, this day keeps looking warmer and warmer, and although nothing quite as extreme as yesterday's warmth, we are now calling for highs well into the 80s most areas, and even some low 90s far south-southwest. Like Tuesday, our current wind forecast may not be strong enough, but gusts of at least 20-25 MPH are probably a good bet out of the west-northwest as a surface trough axis passes by. Given the well-above-average warmth (perhaps pushing March 25th record territory at Grand Island/Hastings), fire weather could be a legitimate concern.

- THURSDAY-FRIDAY: Of all upcoming days, the greatest uncertainty in high temperatures revolves around Thursday, as we could again be well into the 80s if a well-defined cold front arrives later in the day (as the latest ECMWF suggests), but conversely could be only reach the 60s (at most) if the front arrives during the morning (as the latest GFS suggests). Not surprisingly, our official forecast is a "middle ground" with most areas aimed into the 70s. No matter when the front arrives, it will likely be accompanied by north-northeast winds gusting at least 35 MPH...again making fire weather a definite concern. Precipitation-wise, our latest forecast has somewhat-increased precip chances for mainly Thurs night, as especially the GFS suggests a quick hit of light rain and possibly even snow...but this is FAR from a sure thing. On Friday, a dry forecast returns along with cooler temperatures...highs only aimed into the low- mid 50s. It should also be less-windy than Thursday.

- SATURDAY-SUNDAY: Although the ECMWF hints at some spotty rain potential on Saturday, our official forecast remains dry, which appears reasonable for now given limited forcing/lift aloft. Of higher confidence is that we'll see another warm-up, with highs bouncing back up to around 60 on Saturday and then 70s for Sunday. Both days also look rather breezy out of the south.

AVIATION /00Z TAFS THROUGH 00Z TUESDAY/

Issued at 628 PM CDT Sun Mar 22 2026

For KGRI/KEAR Airports:

VFR conditions are forecast to retain despite broken to overcast cloud bases a majority of the day Monday. The gusty northerly winds this evening are expected to soon lighten and later become light and variable across the early Monday morning hours. Wind directions will turn towards the south for the day Monday with winds picking up across the later morning to early afternoon hours. Winds will mainly stay between 15-20kts with gusts occasionally as high as 25-30kts possible through the afternoon. There is a non-zero chance for light rain and/or sprinkles between 14 and 18z. Confidence is not high enough to include outside of a Prob30 mention (20-25% chance).

FIRE WEATHER

Issued at 420 PM CDT Sun Mar 22 2026

Unfortunately, other than some small chances for light precipitation mainly centered around Monday and perhaps Thursday night, the vast majority of these next 7 days appear dry. As a result, at least near-critical fire weather conditions are likely nearly every afternoon within our forecast area (CWA), with at least a few days probably also eventually featuring outright-critical conditions for at least parts of our CWA. However, at least for now (key words "for now"), our official forecast does not particularly highlight any potentially critical days (perhaps Thursday being of overall-most concern?), but the "finer details" of wind speeds/relative humidity (RH) are notoriously difficult to pin down more than 2 days in advance...so later forecasts will need closely monitored for if/when confidence increases in any potential critical days.

Following is a rundown of where fire weather concerns currently stand within our CWA, exclusively focused on the next four days (Mon-Thurs):

- MONDAY: At the very least, near-critical conditions are probable...especially within the western half of our forecast area, where there will likely be an overlap of south-southeast winds gusting at least 20-30 MPH and RH falling to at least 20-25%. The overall-most-concerning combination of strongest winds (gusts 30+ MPH) and lowest relative humidity (right around 20%) appears to favor our western-most counties of Dawson, Gosper, Furnas, Phillips and Rooks...where marginally-critical fire weather conditions cannot be ruled out. Opted against issuing any formal Watches/Warnings for these western-most counties this afternoon given some question marks on how low relative humidity might actually get (especially if clouds are thicker/linger longer into the afternoon), but upcoming night shift may need to consider issuing something...especially if potentially-critical conditions start looking a bit more likely to occur.

- TUESDAY: Temperatures start warming back up (highs back into the 70s), and breezy winds continue...this time more out the south. At least for now, our official forecast keeps wind gusts under 25 MPH and keeps RH above 20% for most of our CWA. However, this forecaster is a bit concerned that our wind speed forecast might still be at least 5 MPH too low...so Tuesday is certainly not "out of the woods" from possible critical conditions in later forecasts.

- WEDNESDAY: This day keeps trending warmer...and is pretty clearly the overall-warmest day of the next 7 with high temps now projected well into the 80s most places, and even a few low 90s in far south-southwest counties. Given this warmth, confidence is high that RH will be critically-low (at least 15-20%), but like Tuesday, our current wind forecast keeps west-northwesterly gusts under 25 MPH. However, once again, in all reality our wind forecast is probably not high enough. If speeds trend up 5-10 MPH in later forecasts, this could be another day with critical conditions.

- THURSDAY: Although still plenty of details to sort out, Thursday is probably trending toward being more of a day of concern for potentially-critical conditions. Although there is quite a bit of uncertainty in how warm/cool it might be (and thus uncertainty in how low RH gets), there is increasing confidence that a fairly strong cold front will pass through...kicking up north-northeast winds to 35+ MPH. However, it is still unclear whether this front passes through earlier or later in the day.

-- NOTE: - NWS Hastings routinely defines CRITICAL fire weather as the overlap of BOTH 20-percent-or-lower RH and sustained winds/gusts of 20+ MPH/25+ MPH (for 3+ hour duration).

- NWS Hastings routinely defines NEAR-CRITICAL fire weather as the overlap of BOTH 25-percent-or-lower RH and sustained winds/gusts 15+MPH/20+ MPH

GID WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

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