6 PM Update: While storms still possible, severe threat wanes for eastern Nebraska

LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) – Severe storms impacted parts of central Nebraska through Thursday afternoon, with multiple reports of tornado touchdowns across parts of Phelps, Dawson, Franklin, Hall, and Adams Counties. While showers and thunderstorms are still ongoing in these areas, the threat for severe weather for eastern Nebraska is diminishing. Thick cloud cover though the day on Thursday has lead to a more stable atmosphere across eastern Nebraska, this more stable atmosphere means that the environment is much less favorable for the development of strong to severe storms. While some thunderstorm activity is still expected to sweep through the area as the low moves east, it doesn’t look to be nearly as robust as early short term model runs had indicated.

A Tornado Watch does remain in effect for parts of central Nebraska through 7 PM Thursday evening, though many counties have already been dropped from the original watch. Lincoln and eastern parts of the state will likely not see an extension of this watch to the east.

As mentioned above, while thunderstorms are still in the forecast through Thursday evening, it is more likely that these won’t reach severe limits. The window of opportunity for thunderstorms in Lincoln remains largely unchanged, with the best chances for showers and storms to move through the area coming from about 7 PM through midnight tonight.

Past midnight tonight, we’ll transition our concern from thunderstorms to high winds. As the surface low slides east through the overnight hours and into Friday morning, very strong winds are forecast to impact the back-end of the low. High end wind gusts are expected to approach 60 MPH for central and western Nebraska, where High Wind Warnings are currently in place.

Those strong winds will push across eastern Nebraska through the day on Friday, potentially gusting up to around 40 to 50 MPH. High Wind Warnings are NOT in place for eastern Nebraska, as the strongest wind gusts aren’t expected to meet the High Wind Warning criteria. We could – and may – see a Wind Advisory issued for parts of eastern Nebraska for the day on Friday. Regardless of who or who isn’t under some sort of “high wind headline”, Friday will be a cool and blustery day across the state.

While thunderstorms aren’t expected to impact the area into the day on Friday, we still could see some light lingering rain across eastern parts of the state as moisture continues to wrap around the departing low pressure system. Look for isolated to widely scattered showers through the morning hours, with some spotty afternoon showers across the area. Skies look to stay fairly overcast through most of the day. If we put it all together, temperatures will be cool, skies will be gray, and winds will be quite strong, making Friday a pretty miserable day for many across the state. Should be good chili and cinnamon roll weather.

As far as temperatures are concerned, the upper level trough and strong surface low will draw in much colder conditions to the region as we finish the week and start the weekend. Lows into Friday morning won’t be any colder than what we’ve seen so far this season, falling to the low 30s in the west to the low 50s in the east.

By the afternoon though, as mentioned above, it will be a chilly, windy, and raw October day. Afternoon highs will struggle, only reaching the low 40s to low 50s across a good chunk of the coverage area. And for the first time, we’re breaking out the wind chill forecast. Afternoon wind chills look to fall into the 30s and 40s for most of the state on Friday. Any area high school football games that folks look to attend will definitely require winter clothing!

The cloudy and cool weather will continue into the weekend. Saturday will continue to see a small chance for some spotty showers as skies stay mainly cloudy. Afternoon temperatures will hold in the low to mid 50s for both weekend days. Warmer temperatures look to return to the forecast into the week next week, with highs in the mid to upper 60s for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

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