Superb Wednesday; storm chances day after day into the weekend

Despite a colder start on Wednesday, temperatures will warm right back to the lower 70s again by the afternoon. Light winds throughout the day will make for a superb day!

This will be our last mostly quiet day this week. There’s a very isolated chance of some spotty showers late tonight that wouldn’t amount to much of anything. But several rounds of showers and thunderstorms will be possible Thursday, Friday and through the weekend.

THURSDAY EVENING/OVERNIGHT – SOUTHWEST NEBRASKA

Day after day, there’s a severe threat somewhere in Nebraska. First on Thursday, it’ll be for stronger thunderstorms starting up in south and southwest Nebraska (hence the Slight – Level 2 – risk mainly for areas south of I-80) into the overnight hours. Large hail, damaging winds and a tornado or two are all possible hazards we’ll be watching for with these storms.

Stormcast in a video below shows the timing of activity throughout Thursday and into the overnight hours. Some scattered showers possible the first half of Thursday nearby, but stronger thunderstorms will develop just before sunset and persist late into the night.

As storms move north of I-80 and east into southeast Nebraska around midnight, we’re expecting weakening activity that could be marginally severe into the morning (hail ~1″, 60mph gusts).

With the Marginal (Level 1) risk Thursday evening, all areas in green above including Lincoln, the threat of severe weather is lower during this timeframe. The tornado threat is on the low end, and isolated flash flooding will be possible.

FRIDAY AFTERNOON/EVENING – EASTERN NEBRASKA

We’ll be watching Thursday morning’s round and how it plays out because it will affect the severe threat for Friday afternoon. That severe threat does increase for eastern Nebraska with Lincoln, Beatrice, Columbus and areas east in a Slight (Level 2) risk Friday afternoon into the evening.

In the video below, Stormcast shows some clearing and therefore some heating from the sun in areas of south-central and southeast Nebraska late in the morning and into the afternoon. That would be another piece that would really aid in stronger storm development for this threat later in the day, wrapping up by Friday night.

SATURDAY EVENING/NIGHT – EXTREME SOUTHEAST NEBRASKA

Good news is.. the Spring Game does look to be fairly dry for festivities in Lincoln. Another round of storms will fire up Saturday evening, with the higher risk of severe weather well to the south. Extreme southeast Nebraska is featured in a lower end threat for that period.

Storms are expected to persist into Sunday, before clearing out and quieting down as we transition to early next week.

Meteorologist Jessica Blum 
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