Cold front brings chance for rain; Latest Drought Monitor released

An approaching cold front will have impacts on southeast Nebraska’s weather Thursday.  First, bringing warmer temperatures.  Second, bringing a chance for late afternoon/evening showers and thunderstorms.  Third, bringing slightly cooler air for the end of the work week.

Skies will be mainly sunny for most of the day Thursday.  Clouds will begin to bubble up by late afternoon as the cold front approaches.  Temperatures will surge in to the middle and upper 80°s.  It would not surprise me if a few locales reach 90°.  With just a touch more humidity, the heat index could reach 90° late afternoon.

Scattered showers and thunderstorms will be possible as early as 3 p.m., north of the Platte River.  High resolution computer model data suggests showers and thunderstorms reach the Platte River by 5 p.m.  Rain will keep marching southeast through the evening, reaching Lincoln between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.

Not everyone will get rain Thursday evening.  Those that do get rain, plan on just a few hundredths of an inch.  In other words, this should not bring copious amounts of precipitation to the area.

DROUGHT MONITOR

Any rain at this point is a good thing for the state.  Thursday morning’s latest Drought Monitor was released.  Generally speaking, there is not much change from the previous week.

Approximately 74% of the state is categorized under drought conditions.  “Exceptional Drought” conditions are confined to the southwest corner of the state.

After Thursday night it looks to remain pretty dry through the next seven to eight days.  Looking long term, some data suggests there could be a chance for rain around August 26 and 27, but nothing to get excited about at this time.

– Chief Meteorologist John Dissauer