textproduct: Hastings

KEY MESSAGES

- Heat Advisory continues through Saturday at 8:00 PM. Heat indices in the upper 90s to 100s expected. Above-normal temperatures will continue through next week.

- Dry conditions are favored until Friday evening when a few isolated storms will come back into play primarily west of Kearney.

- Slightly higher storm chances (still primarily to the north of Grand Island and west of Kearney) will return Saturday night into Sunday. Monday has the highest precip chances in the next few days.

DISCUSSION

Issued at 1238 PM CDT Thu Sep 3 2026

Our persistent upper-level ridge and surface high pressure is expected to retrograde westward back over the Central Plains over the next 48 hours, keeping us in high heat through Labor Day. The current Heat Advisory remains in effect through Saturday evening, and has been expanded northwestward slightly. The hottest locations in our CWA will be the southeastern counties, where afternoon and early evening heat indices will reach up to ~107 F, with 12z HREF indicating 60 - 80% chances for heat indices to top 105 F. Overnight lows in the Heat Advisory zone will offer little relief only getting down to the low- to-mid 70s F. Heat indices even for our far northwestern counties in greater central Nebraska will reach into the upper 90s, and these portions of the CWA still only have 10 - 20% chances for overnight lows to bottom out ~65 F.

Dry conditions are favored through tomorrow (FRI) evening. Friday evening ~5:00 PM, a few isolated thunderstorms will be possible (12z HREF probabilities 10 - 20% chances), primarily west of Highway 183 and north of Kearney. A couple storms also look to be possible for our counties along the KS / NE state line as southeasterly surface flow with relatively higher dewpoints and a strengthening 850-hPa jet overlap as the ridge / surface high pushes back west. The 12z RRFS and ARW appear the most aggressive with these storms. However, confidence is lower (10%) in these storms, but it will be worth watching. The best chances for precip do look to hold west of North Platte's CWA, but a heaviest-precip scenario (i.e. 95th percentile totals) would bring very localized totals of 0.5 - 0.75 in. Highest chances to realize these totals would be west of Highway 183. Regardless, the likeliest scenario is that the majority stay dry, and those that do receive rain get nothing more than 0.1 in.

Surface winds today will continue at 10 - 20 mph, wobbling from out of the SSW to SSE. Gusts today will be highest for those in the Heat Advisory zone, offering a slight bit of relief. Today's gusts will top out near 25 mph. Tonight, a few of our northwestern counties can see a brief shift to northerly winds, but southerly flow will be the majority's wind direction through tonight. There is some uncertainty as to how strong tonight's gust can get in the Heat Advisory zone, as a surface inversion is likely to develop but low-level winds will be strong. Some mixing would allow relatively breezier conditions to continue overnight in the Heat Advisory zone. Tomorrow (FRI) afternoon, a shift to more southeasterly flow at 10 - 15 mph will help bring in slightly higher moisture content for our potential storms. Beyond FRI, calmer south-southeasterly flow is expected for SAT and SUN. MON, however, looks to be the windiest day upcoming, with 15 - 25 mph sustained winds and 13z NBM probabilities of gusts >35 mph reaching ~60%.

AVIATION /00Z TAFS THROUGH 00Z SATURDAY/

Issued at 628 PM CDT Thu Sep 3 2026

For KGRI/KEAR Airports:

High confidence VFR conditions through the period with clear skies and light and variable winds this evening. Winds will increase out of the south to around 8 KTS by 04/06Z...with some very marginal LLWS possible until 04/13Z. Thereafter...a few passing high clouds and light southerly winds less than 10 KTS are anticipated through the remainder of the period.

CLIMATE

Issued at 1240 PM CDT Wed Sep 3 2026

Potential Record "Warmest Low" Temperatures This Week

Grand Island (KGRI): Fri, Sept 4th: 72 (1954,1912,1899) Sat, Sept 5th: 75 (1945)

Hastings (KHSI): Thu, Sept 3rd: 71 (1980,1937) Fri, Sept 4th: 72 (2015,1925) Sat, Sept 5th: 74 (1912)

GID WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

NE...Heat Advisory until 8 PM CDT Saturday for NEZ049-063-064- 074>077-083>087. KS...Heat Advisory until 8 PM CDT Saturday for KSZ005>007-017>019.