textproduct: North Platte

KEY MESSAGES

- Highs will peak on Wednesday in the mid 80s with readings gradually falling into the weekend with highs in the upper 70s to around 80.

- Daily precipitation chances from Wednesday through the weekend. Heavy rainfall is possible given available moisture, however confidence in precipitation placement is low.

SYNOPSIS

Issued at 328 PM CDT Tue May 26 2026

H5 analysis this morning had high pressure located in the western Atlantic off the coast of the Carolinas. Across the CONUS this morning, a fairly convoluted pattern was noted. An elongated ridge extended from the Carolinas, west-northwest into the upper Mississippi Valley and northeastern Nebraska. South of this feature, a tandem of shortwaves were noted. The first over the ArkLatex and a second over eastern New Mexico. Further west, closed low pressure was noted just off the coast of southeastern Oregon. A trough extended south of this feature into central California. East of this feature, a decent shortwave trough was noted over eastern Idaho and western Wyoming. At the surface, low pressure was noted over central Montana. A surface trough extended south-southeast of this feature into north central Wyoming, then eastern Colorado. Gusty southerly winds had developed across the western half of the forecast area this afternoon and the combination of gusty winds and low relative humidity, has led to the issuance of a red flag warning earlier today for the eastern panhandle and western Sandhills. As of 2 PM CDT, winds were gusting up to 42 MPH at Imperial and temperatures ranged from 84 degrees at Imperial to 91 degrees at Valentine.

SHORT TERM /THROUGH WEDNESDAY NIGHT/

Issued at 328 PM CDT Tue May 26 2026

The upper level low over southeastern Oregon, will dive southeast into western Nevada tonight. At the same time, elongated ridging will drift northwest into the Dakotas. Showers and thunderstorms in association with a weak shortwave, will drift to the north overnight across the Texas Panhandle into the Oklahoma Panhandle and far southeastern Colorado. Further north, expect mainly clear skies tonight with diminishing winds this evening. Overnight lows will bottom out in the lower to middle 50s. The upper level low will retrograde to the southwest into central California Wednesday into Wednesday night. A blocking ridge will remain in place extending form eastern Missouri northwest into northeastern Nebraska and the Dakotas. South of this feature, the shortwave, responsible for precipitation in the Texas Panhandle tonight, will continue to drift slowly northward, only making it into western Kansas by 12z Thursday. Weak leave will slowly lift north across western Kansas during the day on Wednesday approaching extreme SW Nebraska Wednesday night. Across the forecast area Wednesday clouds will increase from the south leading to highs in the middle 80s. Further north and northeast, highs will reach into the upper 80s to lower 90s under full sun. With the ridge remaining stationary Wednesday and Wednesday night, precipitation off to the south of the area, will have a very difficult time lifting north into the area.

LONG TERM /THURSDAY THROUGH TUESDAY/

Issued at 328 PM CDT Tue May 26 2026

Ridging will slowly migrate east on Thursday and Thursday night, reaching the upper Mississippi Valley Friday morning. This will allow the persistent shortwave across western Kansas, to migrate slowly north into western Nebraska. Precipitation chances will begin to increase Thursday night from southwestern into western Nebraska. This threat will continue Thursday night through the weekend as the closed low over the SW CONUS weakens and lifts northeast into the ridge axis. Currently pops are in the 30 to 60 percent range Friday through Sunday. This may be overdone as there is not much of a surface boundary to focus precipitation on this weekend. With a very weak sheared environment indicated in the latest deterministic models and PWATS running 90 to 125 percent of normal this weekend, precipitation will be feast or famine. If a location is lucky enough to have thunderstorms, there will be the threat for heavy rainfall. Given the lack of a surface focus, that widespread threat for heavy rainfall appears localized at best and limited to the western half of the forecast area. Unfortunately for eastern Nebraska, their closer proximity to the ridge axis will limit the threat for precipitation this weekend. There will be a continued threat for precipitation early into next week with the blocking ridge remaining in place just off to the east of the area and weak southwesterly flow extending from the western Dakotas into western Nebraska. ATTM, forecast confidence remains in doubt as the deterministic models typically have difficulties in handling blocking pattern's.

AVIATION /00Z TAFS THROUGH 00Z THURSDAY/

Issued at 701 PM CDT Tue May 26 2026

VFR conditions will prevail across all of western and north central Nebraska through Wednesday. A gradual increase in high clouds will occur over western Nebraska. Surface winds diminish this evening but increase 10-20 kts from the south to southeast during the day Wednesday.

LBF WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

Red Flag Warning until 7 PM MDT this evening for NEZ204.