Low humidity for a gorgeous first Friday in August, though areas of smoke linger

August is our second hottest month and third wettest month of the year on average. It’s also when the average temperatures from beginning to end start to cool gradually.

By the end, the sunrise will be closer to 7 a.m. and the sunset will be closer to 8 p.m. at night.

Our cooler weather will be spoiled a bit by areas of smoke Friday into Saturday. Air quality will be impacted because of plumes of smoke moving from both the Arizona/Utah area fire and Canada fires. An Air Quality Alert (also known as smoke advisory) is in effect for central into eastern Nebraska until 5 p.m. Friday.

While smoke will be in the area into the weekend, Friday will be a gorgeous day: low humidity, sunshine with some clouds mixed in, cool weather for early August and light winds.

There’s also a TON of events going on as August kicks off. The Czech festival in Wilber starts today, the Lancaster County Super Fair continues and some sports. All the while temperatures will only warm to the 70s for many again.

More storms will track through the Panhandle and southwest Nebraska, posing a risk for severe weather Friday evening.

A Slight (Level 2 of 5) risk is in place as an isolated tornado, hail and damaging wind will all be possible way out west.

The low humidity will continue for much of the weekend, with spotty chances at rain on Saturday and scattered showers and storms possible Saturday night into Sunday. Both of these timeframes precipitation is not expected to be widespread.

Next week we will warm up, ending up in the lower 90s by Thursday.

Meteorologist Jessica Blum 
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