textproduct: North Platte

KEY MESSAGES

- Dry and mild conditions persist through at least Friday morning with above normal temperatures expected.

- A cold front will move through the region Friday night into Saturday, bringing increased chances for showers and perhaps a few thunderstorms. Cooler, near climatological highs in the 60s in its wake over the weekend and into early next week.

LONG TERM /TUESDAY NIGHT THROUGH SUNDAY/

Issued at 323 AM CDT Mon Oct 19 2026

Strong upper ridging continues to build across the central Plains Wednesday, with a closed low off the coast of California. While strong ridging will remain through Thursday, the closed low will gradually move onshore through the day, and into the Rocky Mountain region by Friday morning. This pattern will generally lead to warmer, drier conditions through the mid week. Daytime highs are expected to be in the low to mid 70s across western and north central Nebraska Wednesday and Thursday, with southeasterly winds gusting up to 20 - 30 mph Thursday afternoon. By Friday, the ridge begins to get squished with the upper trough crossing the Rockies. This will lead to an increase in anomalous temperatures for the area with H850 temps being 20 to 23C across western to southwest Nebraska. This translates to daytime highs ranging in the mid to upper 70s across region, with southwest Nebraska having a low-end (10 - 20 percent) but not impossible chance of reaching 80. This would put highs 10 to 15 degrees above climatological norms for the season. Winds will be the strongest Friday afternoon through the evening hours with sustained southerly winds ranging from 20 to 25 mph, with strongest gusts being east of a line from Ogallala to Valentine. These gusts are expected to be in the 30 - 40 mph range but there is a 30 to 50 percent chance of gusts being in excess of 40 mph. Luckily, marginal humidities (35 - 50 percent) will overlap with these strong winds, so fire concerns should be limited.

In addition, a shortwave ahead of the upper low will move into the Northern Plains Friday afternoon. This will drive a cold front southeastward across the region. This could provide enough lift to a stream of moisture making its way up from the Gulf, bringing increased chances for showers as well as a few thunderstorms Friday evening through Saturday. Even with increased precipitation chances, accumulations are still likely to remain fairly modest with north central Nebraska having a 20 - 40 percent chance of seeing greater than a tenth of an inch during this time frame.

The upper low lifts into the Dakotas, while the cold front pushes out of our area. In the wake of the front, daytime highs over the weekend and early next week are expected to be in the low to mid 60s, which would be on par to slightly warmer than seasonal norms.

AVIATION /12Z TAFS THROUGH 12Z TUESDAY/

Issued at 613 AM CDT Mon Oct 19 2026

VFR conditions are expected through the forecast period across western and north central Nebraska.

Winds will remain light and variable until about noon today. Winds will then shift more east southeasterly at 5 to 10 knots, becoming more southerly as the evening progresses, remaining through the overnight hours into Tuesday morning. There is some signal for patchy fog developing across southwest Nebraska near the end of the TAF period Tuesday morning, but confidence in it affecting KLBF remains low enough to omit it from the TAF at this time. This will be something to monitor closely if this trend changes.

LBF WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

None.