Rain chances increase late; strong storms possible west in meantime

Another blissful summer morning as temperatures were seen dropping to about 60° early Friday. We’ll warm up with less cloud cover to start, before becoming partly cloudy to mostly cloudy for the back half of the day.

Temperatures across Nebraska will warm up again to the 80s and 90s across the state, with the warmest temperatures in the Panhandle and southwest Nebraska in the lower 90s.

Rain does return to the forecast Friday, but not until late. Better rain chances in Lincoln happen overnight into Saturday morning – the strongest storms expected west earlier on through Friday afternoon and evening.

A wave of energy will kickstart another round of potentially severe storms in western Nebraska with damaging wind as the primary threat. Those storms are expected to weaken as they move south/east through the evening hours, losing heating as the sun goes down. Then for most, the severe threat dies down and we’ll await rain and regular thunderstorms.

This is an update from Friday morning’s show. The Storm Prediction Center has upgraded southwest Nebraska to an Enhanced (Level 3 of 5) risk from North Platte over to Kearney south.

Increasing confidence in high winds across southwest Nebraska have led to this update. Winds exceeding 75 mph are possible especially in the area with black hash marks.

Large hail is a possibility too earlier on in the life of these storms as they develop in northern Nebraska.

Our main window to pick up decent rain will be late Friday evening and into Saturday. Spotty rain chances will continue for eastern Nebraska on and off throughout Saturday and Sunday.

Meteorologist Jessica Blum 
Twitter: JessicaBlumWx 
Facebook: JessicaBlumWx 
YouTube: JessicaBlumWx