Pleasant for last day of school; periodic rain chances through Memorial Day weekend

Happy last day of school to students and teachers around Lincoln!

It’ll be a bit on the cooler side with temperatures starting out in the lower 40s Thursday morning. Yet this afternoon will be rather pleasant to celebrate finishing another school year with plenty of sunshine and lighter winds, warming to the upper 60s.

We’ll be below average for this time of the year by about 10 degrees! That streak of cooler weather lasts for quite a while going forward – basically until about the start of June.

North to northwest winds will be manageable today – gusts at their strongest may be at about 20 to 25 mph, and we’ll take that compared to some of the windier days lately.

Unfortunately for Memorial Day weekend and a lot of outdoor plans at this time of year, this extended weekend looks to be mostly cloudy with chances for rain and storms periodically. It won’t be a washout of a weekend but keep an eye on each day with activities you may have in the works.

In fact, there’s the threat of severe weather with storms possible across the southwest corner of the state on Friday.

Here’s the timing of what that could look like: showers look likely across eastern Nebraska by the mid- to late-morning hours. By Friday afternoon and evening, stronger storms will fire up around the northeastern Colorado border.

The threat of these storms has prompted the Storm Prediction Center to upgrade to a Slight (Level 2 of 5) risk as scattered severe storms will be possible. That area includes North Platte, Ogallala, Sidney and McCook across southwest Nebraska.

Hail will be one of the primary threats with these storms.

Damaging wind gusts will be another threat to prepare for Friday afternoon and evening.

We’ll keep you posted on the timing of other storms and rain chances throughout the holiday weekend as we get closer.

Meteorologist Jessica Blum 
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