textproduct: Omaha/Valley

KEY MESSAGES

- Nightly frost chances tonight through Friday night. Highest potential for widespread frost and a freeze in some locations will be Friday night.

- Occasional spotty shower and storm chances (under 20%) at times through this weekend. Highest potential will be this afternoon, Friday afternoon, and Sunday evening.

- Highs in the mid 50s to lower 60s through Friday, then warming into the 60s and 70s Saturday into next week.

DISCUSSION

Issued at 159 PM CDT Thu Apr 30 2026

Early afternoon satellite imagery showed a fair amount of cloud cover across the area ahead of some shortwave energy spinning across SD. There were also some light radar returns across north-central into central NE, which could edge eastward into our area this afternoon and give us a few sprinkles. Not expecting any notable rainfall though. Some additional spotty showers/sprinkles could develop into this evening and overnight, but at the same time, surface high pressure will be building in and should limit overall coverage. Otherwise, the main thing to note tonight will be frost potential with temperatures dropping into the lower to mid 30s, lowest across northeast NE. Ended up issuing a Frost Advisory across most of eastern NE and into west-central IA where formation looks most favorable. Farther east, guidance suggests clouds may linger a little longer and keep us a few degrees warmer. Still could see a couple hours of patchy frost in low-lying areas, but not expecting it to be as widespread. Regardless of advisory or not, you'll want to think about protecting your plants.

Friday will be similar to today with another bit of shortwave energy rounding the base of the upper level trough to our northeast and leading to some cloud cover and perhaps a few isolated showers/sprinkles. Once again, not much moisture or instability to work with, so any coverage of precip should be quite low. Surface high pressure is progged to quickly work in Friday evening with clearing skies and light winds. This will lead to an even cooler night with a little more widespread frost and even some locations seeing a freeze (most likely in northeast NE and west-central IA.

Saturday will be the start of a warming trend as upper level ridging will start to edge eastward and southerly flow sets up behind the departing surface high. Temperatures should get into the mid 60s to lower 70s, followed by widespread 70s to lower 80s on Sunday and Monday. We will remain under northwest flow aloft with guidance suggesting potential for a few weak shortwaves to ripple through the area along with some surface fronts, potentially bringing some light precip. However, the primary moisture plume looks to remain to our southeast, and stronger forcing for ascent will remain to our northeast, so chances currently remain below 20% for us through Monday with anything that does develop being pretty light.

Meanwhile, a rather strong upper level trough/cutoff low looks to move onshore over CA Sunday night into Monday, breaking down the ridge, with associated shortwave energy ejecting toward the forecast area. In addition, a surface boundary will be sliding through the forecast area Monday into Tuesday and stalling somewhere in or near the forecast area. As the aforementioned shortwave energy pushes in, expect shower and storm development in vicinity of the boundary Tuesday into Wednesday. Latest guidance favors most of this activity being to our south, keeping precip chances in the 30-40% range, though a few various ensemble members set the front up across NE instead of KS, so frontal position will be something to keep an eye on. Otherwise, temperatures behind the front look to return to the 60s through mid-week.

AVIATION /00Z TAFS THROUGH 00Z SATURDAY/

Issued at 621 PM CDT Thu Apr 30 2026

VFR conditions and overall, decreasing cloud cover are expected going into the overnight hours. Northwesterly winds that are currently in place will become increasingly lax by midnight, and shift westerly at less than 5 kts. Once sunlight returns, directions will once again pivot northwesterly and increase to similar speeds that we saw this late morning/afternoon. Cloud cover will be in shorter supply compared to today, with some shower chances to the northeast across Iowa, with the terminals expected to stay dry.

OAX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

NE...Frost Advisory from midnight tonight to 9 AM CDT Friday for NEZ011-012-015>018-030>034-042>044-050-051-065-066-078- 088>090-092. IA...Frost Advisory from midnight tonight to 9 AM CDT Friday for IAZ043.