textproduct: North Platte

KEY MESSAGES

- Cold temperatures tonight, with lows near or below freezing expected

- Chance of patchy fog tonight into Tuesday morning

- Warmer, drier conditions expected to return by the middle of the week with daytime highs in the mid 60s to near 70F.

- Increasing potential for multiple disturbances arriving this weekend and continuing into early next week.

SHORT TERM /THROUGH TUESDAY NIGHT/

Issued at 335 PM CDT Mon Oct 26 2026

The main concern in the short term will be the low temperatures tonight and the potential for fog Tuesday morning. As the dry tongue continues to push in from the southwest dry air will entrain into the area and lingering rain will begin to dissipate and rotate out of the area, with rain coming to an end across north central Nebraska by early evening. This then turns our attention to the overnight lows. A few of the models have trended towards significantly lower temperatures than the previous forecast. However uncertainty remains on just how cold temperatures will get tonight with cloud coverage. Do think we might see some areas of scattered to broken cloud coverage across southwest Nebraska this evening but uncertainty remains on just how much clearing will occur this evening, before additional low to mid level clouds build back in overnight. Because of this, did trend to the cooler temperatures, but did not go aggressive with the lows, as confidence in clouds remaining more scattered through the overnight to allow temperatures to plummet is quite low and there is greater confidence in more overcast skies through the overnight and early morning as additional moisture streams into the area.

As for the potential of fog tonight into tomorrow morning. The recent rainfall and light winds, combined with the cooler temperatures will bring the potential for fog development as early as this evening. Will see winds become light and variable near sunset, generally less than 5 mph. Will likely see stratus develop overnight and could see patchy fog across western and southwest Nebraska, along with the northern Sandhills. Decided not to issue any headlines at this time due to the uncertainty on how widespread or dense the fog will be tonight/Tuesday morning. Winds will increase by Tuesday late morning with wind speeds around 10 to 20 mph and should see any fog that does develop will disperse by late morning.

LONG TERM /WEDNESDAY THROUGH MONDAY/

Issued at 335 PM CDT Mon Oct 26 2026

A strong jet will settle across the Pacific Northwest in the upper levels through the mid to late week. Height rises will build in across the Northern Plains bringing calmer weather to the region. Daytime highs will climb in to mid 60s to near 70s across western and north central Nebraska, Wednesday through most of the weekend. This will be about 5 to 10F degrees above climatological norms for this time of the year. By the end of the week, a closed low will make landfall in the Pacific Northwest/Canada border, creating deep troughing southward of it across the West Coast. This will be the next system to keep an eye of as it should lead to more southwesterly flow aloft in the Plains region and forecasted to have multiple shortwaves crossing the Rockies over the next week or so. As such, models have started to catch on to the potential for increased precipitation chances for our region heading into the weekend and early next week. As it stands now, the early weekend precipitation potential looks to remain isolated in nature across southwest to central Nebraska, with limited accumulations expected. The late weekend to early next week disturbance brings a better potential for meaningful precipitation potential in way of mostly rain, wintery mix possible in the overnights. This is with the added caveat of greater uncertainty even with both the Euro and GFS both agreeing on overall coverage but differing on intensity and precipitation type. With details still being murky, this will be something to keep an eye on with subsequent forecast details.

AVIATION /12Z TAFS THROUGH 12Z TUESDAY/

Issued at 653 AM CDT Mon Oct 26 2026

MVFR to IFR conditions will continue through afternoon as stratus and fog continues to affect the area this afternoon. There may be a brief break in the clouds across southwest Nebraska this afternoon. Tonight low stratus and patchy fog will develop, at this time how widespread the fog potential will be remains uncertain but could see some patchy areas of dense fog as well. Will see MVFR or lower conditions into the overnight and early morning.

LBF WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

None.