textproduct: North Platte

KEY MESSAGES

- Red Flag Warning remains in effect until 9pm CT this evening. Fire weather concerns then decrease Thursday and Friday.

- Next chance for rain comes Friday night across western and southwest Nebraska.

- Severe thunderstorm potential increases, especially by Saturday afternoon into the evening.

SHORT TERM /THROUGH FRIDAY NIGHT/

Issued at 252 PM CDT Wed Jun 17 2026

Surface high pressure settles into the area tonight into Thursday with winds decreasing and cooler temperatures. In fact, lows tonight will likely drop into the mid 40s across northwest Nebraska, with locally upper 40s in lower spots like river valleys, etc.

The Red Flag Warning will remain in effect until 9pm CT as winds do stay up through early evening, but then quickly decrease late evening and overnight. Humidity recovery will be rather poor overnight, but fortunately, as mentioned, winds decrease.

Fire weather concerns will be limited the both Thursday and Friday as winds decrease Thursday with the surface high building into the area. Friday, dew points begin to increase with humidity on the rise. The next chance for any rainfall will come Friday night. Mid- level warm air advection will be on the increase with continued low- level moisture advection. Some weak elevated instability is noted and have included a low chance pop for showers/thunder across portions of southwest into western Nebraska.

LONG TERM /SATURDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY/

Issued at 252 PM CDT Wed Jun 17 2026

A long wave trough moves onto the west coast and into the Intermountain west by Saturday morning. Higher theta-e air will continue to move northward, with surface dew points rising into the 60s Saturday. As the low pressure deepens through the day across eastern Colorado, low-level flow will back to the southeast across southwest the area. Increasing instability and adequate shear will provide the potential for severe storms with any late afternoon development. Supercells would likely be the mode early on, transitioning to possible MCS development during the evening as a strong southerly low-level jet continues to advect moisture northward into the area. A warm front will likely be located across a portion of the forecast area, and could locally enhance the tornado threat late Saturday afternoon and especially Saturday evening as the low-level jet increases. Sunday will likely continue to be showery, as moist easterly upslope flow remains, and the long wave trough dampens and crosses the area. Early next week continues to look active. Upper level ridging will develop across the southwestern CONUS. West to northwest flow aloft will be in place across our region northeast of this feature. Ample low-level moisture remains in place, and will interact with any weak disturbances crossing the area. Details on any severe are unknown at this point, but will be refined in later forecasts.

AVIATION /00Z TAFS THROUGH 00Z FRIDAY/

Issued at 635 PM CDT Wed Jun 17 2026

VFR conditions are expected to prevail through tomorrow evening across western and north central Nebraska. Strong northerly winds continue to diminish through sunset, becoming light from the west-northwest overnight.

Winds then remain northwest tomorrow afternoon, at 10 to 15kts.

LBF WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

Red Flag Warning until 9 PM CDT /8 PM MDT/ this evening for NEZ204-206-208>210-219.