textproduct: Omaha/Valley

KEY MESSAGES

- Near-normal temperatures continue through the work week, with highs in the 80s to lower 90s.

- Periodic chances for showers and storms Wednesday through Friday. Main hazards with any strong-severe storms will be damaging winds, large hail, and flash flooding.

- A stretch of hot and humid weather is expected this weekend into next week.

DISCUSSION

Issued at 1119 AM CDT Tue Jul 7 2026

Another quiet day today with mostly clear skies and light winds generally out of the south. High pressure remains over the region for one more day before a jet streak pushing east out of California breaks down the ridge leading to a more active weather pattern for the rest of the week. Highs today will peak in the upper 80s to lower 90s with heat indices warming into the low-to-mid 90s.

As the ridge breaks down, we'll see the return of the low-level jet, advecting more moisture into the region from the Gulf. At the same time, we'll see a shortwave pull the main active frontal boundary back south to right near the Nebraska-South Dakota state line. Over the next few days we'll see shortwaves interact with this boundary as well as nocturnal activation of the low-level jet leading to periodic storm chances across our area.

Wednesday with increasing moisture expect to see increasing cloud cover, especially through the afternoon and evening hours. Temperatures won't be much warmer than we see today, but humidity will be about 5 to 10 percent higher, bringing heat indices up into the mid-to-upper 90s.

The previously mentioned shortwave moving through during the day tomorrow could activate a few pop-up showers and storms Wednesday afternoon and evening. The primary threat with these storms appears to be damaging winds due to dry air in the lower levels keeping cloud bases fairly high. Model soundings show a fairly decent inverted-v signature, indicative of a damaging wind threat. Still think any severe weather will be fairly isolated at this time due to weak environmental shear. The better chance for more widespread storms will be with an MCS rolling through out of central Nebraska overnight. This MCS develops from afternoon/evening storms that start out over eastern Colorado/western Nebraska, coming together and likely maturing at it's strongest over central Nebraska. As it moves into our area, we should see a weakening trend with damaging winds being the primary threat. This is corroborated by the SPC Day 2 Convective Outlook showing a level 2 "slight" risk over central Nebraska transitioning to a level 1 "marginal" risk over eastern Nebraska and southwest Iowa.

Thursday's weather will be highly dependent on what happens with storms overnight Wednesday into early Thursday, but guidance is in fairly good agreement with showers lingering across our area through Thursday morning. Cloud cover likely will keep temperatures cooler through the afternoon, though highs will still be in the 80s. Thursday night, we expect another MCS to roll through, more across far southern portions of our area with potential for more heavy rain and low threat for damaging winds. Depending on this system's track, we could see showers and storms linger into Friday morning as well, with temperatures again staying somewhat milder through the afternoon with highs in the 80s.

Going into the weekend, we see a strong ridge start to build up over the Rockies signaling a prolonged period of heat on it's way. Temperatures will start trending back upward on Saturday while expanding High Pressure spreads over the Northern Plains to Great Lakes region. Highs on Saturday will warm back into the mid 80s to near 90, continuing this trend back into the upper 80s to mid 90s on Sunday. Extended guidance has slowed down the warming trend, getting us closer to Extreme Heat more likely toward Monday-Tuesday of next week now. Rain chances are likely to dry up, so if you haven't had to use your sprinklers yet this season, you might want to make sure they're working here soon.

AVIATION /12Z TAFS THROUGH 12Z WEDNESDAY/

Issued at 1119 AM CDT Tue Jul 7 2026

VFR conditions through the TAF period under mostly clear skies. winds staying generally out of the south.

OAX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

NE...None. IA...None.