textproduct: North Platte

KEY MESSAGES

- The cooler weekend remains on track with highs only reaching the upper 60s to lower 70s on Sunday.

- Outside of decaying storms approaching southwest Nebraska Sunday evening, dry conditions are expected through much of the forecast period.

- Temperatures return to above normal values by the middle of next week.

SHORT TERM /THROUGH SUNDAY NIGHT/

Issued at 202 PM CDT Sat Jun 13 2026

Early this morning, scattered thunderstorms developed at the intersection of a surface cool front and increasingly moist southerly flow into the boundary. The background environment was characterized by ample deep-layer shear and strong elevated instability and resulted in multiple instances of severe hail. Training thunderstorms along the boundary also led to heavy rainfall with multiple reports of 2-3"+ in portions of Loup and Garfield Counties. Activity quickly exited the area to the east by 10-11am CDT with dry conditions resuming across the region thereafter. High clouds continue to stream in over northwest Nebraska with diurnal cumulus developing over the Sandhills.

For tonight...surface high pressure will continue to settle south and east towards the Central Plains. Skies will see increasing coverage and because of this, a purely radiational cooling night does not appear likely. That said, temperatures will settle into the low to middle 40s for many or nearly 10F below normal. This will set up primarily across the Sandhills with milder temperatures further south and east.

Sunday/Sunday Night...temperatures off the surface will continue to fall heading into Sunday with h85 values settling around 10-12C. Though CAA will wane during the day, daytime temperatures will be their coolest of the forecast period. Values will range from the middle 60s to lower 70s west to east. Winds will be weaker though a few gusts nearing 20 mph remain possible. By evening, a shortwave trough will track southeast through eastern Wyoming. Increasingly easterly moist flow will run up to the Front Range and lead to afternoon and evening thunderstorms. With westerly mid-level flow, activity should push off the higher terrain and approach our southwest zones. Have maintained Slight Chance (< 25%) PoPs in our southwest but this may be rather bullish. Recent NBM probabilities for measurable rain have decreased with most deterministic solutions remaining dry in the local area. Still though, modest lapse rates within a saturated layer may be enough to get a few isolated showers and general thunderstorms. No severe weather is expected and rainfall amounts, should one be lucky enough to see some, will remain on the order of a few hundredths at best. Lows will again fall across much of the area with similar lower 40s to near 50F across the area. Latest MET guidance hints at upper 30s over the western Sandhills but will hold off on going this cool with overnight lows. To put this into context, the record low temperature for 06/15 at Alliance Airport is 35 degrees so we're approaching record cold for mid-June in portions of the area should the MET pan out.

LONG TERM /MONDAY THROUGH SATURDAY/

Issued at 202 PM CDT Sat Jun 13 2026

Broad troughing remains stalled across the Hudson Bay area with multiple mid-level perturbations expected to rotate through the northwesterly flow across portions of central CONUS. The first of these will arrive during the day Monday and favor our far north central Nebraska zones. This will draw a cold front south into the area late Monday into Tuesday. The result will be rain and thunderstorms across South Dakota that may encroach our zones bordering the Missouri River. NBM probabilities remain muted with deterministics keeping activity confined to eastern South Dakota therefore the forecast remains dry. Will see how this potential evolves in the coming days. Warmer temperatures arrive Tuesday with increasing thermal ridging centering across the central and southern Rockies. Daytime highs will climb into the 80s and lower 90s by Tuesday, with further warming to middle and upper 90s for southwest Nebraska by Wednesday. A passing front will lead to another brief cooldown before temperatures return to 80s and lower 90s by Friday. The return of warmer temperatures following recent dry weather will support increasing fire weather concerns. The extended forecast was populated with low-end precipitation chances but probabilistic guidance does not advocate for wetting rain potential. Given this, PoPs may be a bit overdone with the antecedent dry conditions and overall pattern of northwesterly flow casting considerable doubt on overall rainfall potential through the end of next week.

AVIATION /00Z TAFS THROUGH 00Z MONDAY/

Issued at 618 PM CDT Sat Jun 13 2026

Gusty winds this afternoon will slowly lessen over the next few hours giving way winds under 10 knots overnight. Increasing northwest winds are expected again on Sunday, but gusts are expected to remain below 20 knots. Otherwise, skies will remain clear to mostly clear through the TAF period with some increasing high level clouds expected by Sunday afternoon.

LBF WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

None.