Warmer and breezier along with a fire weather risk

Winds will return out of the south on Tuesday, and that means we could be dealing with smoke issues from prescribed burns in Kansas once again. An Air Quality Alert is in place for eastern Nebraska through Wednesday afternoon. The Air Quality Index (AQI) could reach moderate (yellow) to unhealthy for sensitive groups (orange) levels.

Southerly winds will also warm temperatures up. Lincoln will see its first day in the 80s so far this year, and we’ll likely surpass the 80° mark by several degrees.

The southerly flow will ramp up through Tuesday morning. By afternoon, it will be breezy with a SSW wind sustained anywhere from 15-25 mph. In fact, it will turn even windier on Wednesday and Thursday.

The breezy conditions will also be accompanied by very dry air, meaning that we’ll be dealing with a fire weather risk starting Tuesday. The fire weather risk doesn’t appear to go away over the next several days either, so please be extra careful if engaging in any activities that might create that initial spark.

We’ll continue to see 80s on Wednesday and Thursday. However, the warm pattern comes to an end on Friday with the arrival of a cold front. We could see some showers and storms as that system arrives. Once it passes, we’ll be looking at cooler weather over the weekend.

Meteorologist Malcolm Byron

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Twitter: @mbyronwx