Quick warm up on Wednesday, colder for Thanksgiving
The day before Thanksgiving is known as one of the most traveled days of the year. Tracking conditions across the country, the weather is relatively quiet for most about to take off through the air or on the road.
Some rain and snow affecting a small portion of the Northwest, and the cross-country system now affecting the Northeast will continue through Wednesday. Keep an eye on that forecast if you’ve got East Coast plans for the holiday.
Here at home, it’s a chilly start. Temperatures are around the lower 20s from here to Omaha but we all warm up quick on Wednesday. Winds will be out of the southwest and much lighter than yesterday.
Although a one-off day with colder air moving in overnight into Thanksgiving, we’ll take the highs in the 60s and 70s statewide. A warm front helps just about everyone regionally, too. Couldn’t ask for a better day to get an early start on the holiday.
The forecast after Thanksgiving is one that’s caught our attention. A system from the northeast will travel over the Rockies, headed for western Nebraska first by Thursday afternoon with snow. The snow will spread in western Nebraska throughout Friday, until moving into central Nebraska early Saturday.
This is one of our first looks at a medium-range model, one that starts to bring about finer details. We will continue to make adjustments to this forecast in the days to come.
A Winter Storm Watch has been issued for most of the Panhandle for Thursday afternoon through early morning Saturday because of this.
Heavy snow is expected to impact that area first, starting around 11 a.m. Thanksgiving into Friday and Saturday. Snow could amount to 4-9″ through this area.
But there’s a lot we’re still watching and working to figure out for us. The timing and duration of how long this system lasts will of course affect snow accumulations. How the system tracks through the state on Saturday will also affect what we see through the first part of the weekend.
It doesn’t appear that this system will have strong winds, so drifting/blowing snow shouldn’t be an impact.
We are sure about colder air coming by then. Highs will be in the 30s for Friday and Saturday.
Whatever minor snow we do see, it shouldn’t last long. We’ll warm into the 40s by Sunday.
Meteorologist Jessica Blum
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