textproduct: Omaha/Valley

KEY MESSAGES

- Strong northwest winds are likely (>80%) tonight into Wednesday morning with gusts up to 50-65 mph.

- Light, mixed-precipitation chances (20-30%) Wednesday night into Thursday, followed by a return of colder temperatures for the weekend.

- Another round of light snow is possible (20-40% chance) Friday night into Saturday.

DISCUSSION

Issued at 219 PM CST Tue Dec 9 2025

Rest of this afternoon through Wednesday:

Early afternoon water vapor imagery and objective analysis indicate an elongated vorticity ribbon from the lee of the Canadian Rockies into ND, on the cyclonic side of mid/upper- level jet streaks extending from the Pacific coast into northern Plains. The interaction of those features will result in considerable trough amplification across the north-central U.S. over the next 12-24 hours. Meanwhile at the surface, low pressure currently over central ND will track southeast into the upper Midwest overnight with a trailing cold front diving south through our area.

To the south of the surface low track, southwest to west winds have advected a considerably warmer air mass into our area with 2 PM temperatures in the 50s across most of eastern NE. The warm spot was Albion at 58 degrees. The warm temperatures will work hard to melt much of the remaining snow cover in our area today, ahead of the cold front approaching from the north. A few sprinkles appear possible this afternoon into evening as a leading belt of forcing for ascent saturates the atmosphere 9-10 kft above ground.

Tonight, the rapid intensification of the weather system mentioned above will result in considerable strengthening of the northwest winds developing behind the surface cold front. Several deterministic models indicate wind gusts of 55-65 mph with the 12z HREF indicating a large swath of median and mean wind gusts of 50-55+ mph moving through at least the northern half of our area overnight into Wednesday morning. As such, we have upgraded the Wind Advisory to a High Wind Warning for locations along and north of a David City to Omaha metro to Oakland, IA line.

Winds will diminish through the day Wednesday with high temperatures ranging from the low 40s in the southwest part of our area to upper 20s to low 30s in the northeast.

Wednesday night and Thursday:

Strengthening low/mid-level warm advection occurring on the backside of a surface ridge shifting to the east will support a chance of light precipitation (20-30% PoPs) in portions of northeast NE and west-central IA. Based on model soundings and explicit precipition-type output, it appears any precipitation would start out as light snow with a possible mix with freezing drizzle or light freezing rain occurring Thursday morning. Any ice accumulation would be light, but it doesn't take much to cause problems. So, we're monitoring model trends closely.

Highs on Thursday are expected to range from the low 50s in the southwest part of our area to low 30s in areas that stand the best chance to see any light precipitation.

Friday through Monday:

A colder air mass will filter into the region on the backside of the Wednesday night-Thursday system with highs in the 20s and 30s Friday, and teens and 20s Saturday. Another clipper system is forecast to pass to our north Friday night into Saturday with an associated zone of warm advection supporting a 20-40% chance of light snow across northeast NE into west-central IA. The coldest temperatures are expected Saturday night into Sunday morning with readings in the single digits above and below zero. Associated wind chills of -10 to -20 are forecast in northeast NE and southwest IA with generally -5 to -10 elsewhere.

Current indications are that we will see moderating temperatures Sunday into Monday.

AVIATION /18Z TAFS THROUGH 18Z WEDNESDAY/

Issued at 1202 PM CST Tue Dec 9 2025

VFR conditions are expected to prevail through the forecast period. There is a 30-40% chance that MVFR ceilings will move into the KOMA area Wednesday morning. A few sprinkles are possible (10-15% chance) this afternoon into evening, but nothing heavy enough to affect visibilities. The primary aviation impact this period is strong northwest winds that will develop tonight into Wednesday morning. Gusts up to 40-50 kt appear likely (greater than 70% chance of occurrence), mainly in the 10/06z-10/13z timeframe.

OAX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

NE...High Wind Warning from midnight tonight to 8 AM CST Wednesday for NEZ033-034-042>045-050>053. Wind Advisory from midnight tonight to 8 AM CST Wednesday for NEZ065>068-078-088>093. High Wind Warning from 9 PM this evening to 8 AM CST Wednesday for NEZ011-012-015>018-030>032. IA...High Wind Warning from midnight tonight to 8 AM CST Wednesday for IAZ043-055-056-069. Wind Advisory from midnight tonight to 8 AM CST Wednesday for IAZ079-080-090-091.