textproduct: North Platte

KEY MESSAGES

- Seasonable highs Wednesday in the upper 70s to lower 80s, turning windy and warmer Thursday in the 80s.

- Moderate confidence severe storms Friday afternoon and evening with large hail and damaging winds being the primary threats.

- Low to moderate confidence in daily thunderstorms through the weekend and into early next week.

SHORT TERM /THROUGH THURSDAY NIGHT/

Issued at 206 AM CDT Wed Sep 9 2026

A cold front has advanced south of the area, from southwest Kansas into northeast Kansas. A secondary cold front will move into the northwest Sandhills overnight. This will allow temperatures to drop into the 50s at many locations across the area by sunrise Wednesday morning. Lows by daybreak will be cooler from low 50s northwest Sandhills to upper 50s southeastern areas.

As the secondary cold front pushes across the area Wednesday morning, surface high pressure will build across western and north central Nebraska into the afternoon. This will bring a period of gusty north to northeast winds up to 25 mph during the morning hours, with winds decreasing during the afternoon as the high becomes centered across the Sandhills. Highs will be cooler in the upper 70s to lower 80s, which will be near normal for highs.

Surface high pressure will reside over the area Wednesday night with mainly clear skies. This will allow for a cool night, with lows falling into the upper 40s to lower 50s by Thursday morning.

On Thursday, surface low pressure will deepen from eastern Montana into eastern Wyoming. This will bring a tightening surface pressure gradient, with a gusty south to southwest wind of 15 to 30 mph with some gusts to 35 mph across the Sandhills. This will also bring a warmup into the 80s, with upper 80s to near 90 across the western and northwest Sandhills. This will also bring the potential for near critical to critical fire weather conditions across the northwest Sandhills, where afternoon humidity may fall as low as 10 to 20 percent combined with a southwest wind 15 to 30 mph. Breezy south to southwest winds Thursday night will keep overnight lows milder from 60 to 65. Humidity recovery will be poor at only 30 to 50 percent across the Pine Ridge.

LONG TERM /FRIDAY THROUGH TUESDAY/

Issued at 206 AM CDT Wed Sep 9 2026

Friday...A more unsettled pattern will arrive by late week and break the brief heat wave across the area. Shortwave ridging will depart as broad troughing settles south across the Western CONUS. As a more pronounced disturbance crosses central Canada, an attendant cool front will settle south into the Central Plains. Through Friday, this feature will slowly translate south and east into western and central Nebraska. Ample moist southerly flow will feed into this and should allow for thunderstorm development during the afternoon. The Storm Prediction Center maintains a Marginal Risk severe weather outlook (Level 1 of 5) for most areas east of Highway 83. Overall, this will come down to placement of the frontal boundary at the time of storm development. Typically, models tend to under-forecast progression of a frontal boundary with ample cold air advection behind it. Because of this, confidence remains relatively low with respect to thunderstorm coverage across the area. Folks should continue to monitor later forecasts regarding precise locations under the threat for severe thunderstorms.

Saturday and beyond...flow aloft will gradually transition to more southwesterly by early next week. This will promote increasing moisture aloft as an influx of moisture from the eastern Pacific will arrive. PWATs will again climb with values progged to exceed 1.0" or nearly 2-3 sigma for mid-September. Temperatures will waver day to day as recurring rounds of rain and thunderstorms dot the forecast period. NBM inner-quartile spread remains fairly large, particularly Sunday and beyond, thus confidence is low in precise daytime temperatures. Widespread wetting rains appear possible late Saturday night into Sunday where the NBM shows 50%+ probabilities of seeing > 0.25" rainfall for areas north of Interstate 80. This will likely be refined some in the coming days as smaller scale details become more certain so stay tuned. Broad upper ridging will become established across the lower Mississippi valley towards the middle of next week. This should allow fairly enhanced mid-level flow to persist and with it, regular precipitation chances. The Climate Prediction Center shows this similar thinking with 40-50% chance of seeing above normal precipitation for the September 14-18 period (Monday through Friday). NBM temperature spreads remain large, increasing to 20F by late week, so it remains to be seen whether we see continued above normal temperatures or perhaps a return to more seasonable levels.

AVIATION /12Z TAFS THROUGH 12Z THURSDAY/

Issued at 625 AM CDT Wed Sep 9 2026

VFR conditions are be expected through the forecast period.

Patchy fog will remain across the river valley this morning but is not expected to cause any significant impacts to KLBF. Any fog is expected to dissipate fairly quickly after sunrise. Mid to high clouds are expected across the area through the day. Gusty north northeast winds will develop by late morning today and continue through the afternoon with peak gusts generally around 20 knots or less. These winds will subside by the evening and return to light and variable during the overnight hours heading into Thursday.

LBF WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

None.