This past week has had some action regarding precipitation and temperature trends. During the first part of the week, we experienced convection and high humidity levels as a deep upper-level trough came through from the Rockies. Moderate thunderstorms developed along and south of I-80 with muggy dew points and overnight lows in the upper 50s to low 60s Monday night into Tuesday. By mid-week, a strong ridge settled in through the central part of the state, which led to clearer skies. This allowed highs to be cooled briefly into the upper 60s and 70s on Tuesday, then rebound to the upper 70s and low 80s through Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. The Panhandle and northern Sandhills saw the quickest uptick in temperatures, while other parts of the state experienced differences in humidity.
Earlier this week, 850mb southerly flow and warm air advection made the possibility of convection occur on Monday night. This was due to a pronounced trough that swept east across the Midwest plains Monday night into Tuesday. Later in the week, a weak ridge migrated from the Rockies into the central Plains from Wednesday through Friday, which brought the warmer temperatures discussed above.
The cold front that was tied to Monday night’s trough pushed across the state overnight, changing wind directions to blow from the northeast into Tuesday morning. The outflow boundary [a gust front line that is generated by convective weather] from Tuesday morning kicked up scattered convective cells from Rising City to Wahoo along the eastern half of the state later into the evening. However, the majority of Nebraska experienced light winds and mostly sunny skies the rest of the week. I would also like to note that rainfall experienced on Monday along the I-80 corridor was a 1- to 3-inch band with local pockets near 4 inches, especially around the Platte River valley and Omaha-Lincoln corridor, which is quite high. Looking into the future, there will be a continued trend of temperatures in the 80s and dry conditions across most of the state due to a building ridge that will create small chances for precipitation. A closing note I would like to make would be that the risk for fire weather concerns may increase next week with these drier conditions.
