Short-lived winter weather system brings some travel headaches today

HASTINGS, Neb. (KSNB) - First things first, a cold front passes through the area overnight and as of mid-morning Thursday, it has exited the southeastern part of the area. Behind the cold front, winds are strong out of the north northwest, and will get stronger into this afternoon. Expect sustained winds of 20 to 35 mph with gusts up to 50 mph. Temperatures have been falling this morning behind the front and may continue to drop for a few more hours. Later today, they may rise a few degrees back to the low to mid 30s later today after some sun tries to come out. Meanwhile, the big story of the day is the wintry weather system moving through. Rain earlier this morning has been transitioning to snow from northwest to southeast. There has been some sleet and freezing rain in between the change over. Already this morning, the snow is starting to wind down in the west. The snow will wind down from west to east and will be wrapping up around noon around highway 281. Meanwhile, farther east, the snow could last into part of the afternoon, wrapping up in the far southeast later in the afternoon. As stated above, the sun will start to come out through the afternoon.

Skies will continue to clear up tonight, although a few more clouds may move in from the north tomorrow morning. Winds will remain quite strong tonight, but will gradually lighten up later in the night and into tomorrow morning. Look for lows in the upper 10s and low to mid 20s. Winds will become blustery again out of the northwest on Friday. They’ll get up around 15 to 25 mph with some gusts to 35 mph. Mostly sunny skies in the morning will get a bit cloudier later in the day as a cold front moves into Northern Nebraska in the afternoon. Temperatures will remain chilly with highs ranging from the upper 20s north to the mid 40s south. Those areas up north may start to drop off in the afternoon behind the cold front. That front will dive south through the rest of the area Friday night. With it, northerly winds will remain blustery and temperatures will drop down into the upper 0s north to the upper 10s southwest by early Saturday morning. Skies will become mostly sunny on Saturday, but winds will remain blustery out of the northwest. It’s going to be a colder day with highs ranging from the lower 20s northeast to the mid 30s in the southwest. Saturday night will be another cold one as temperatures drop into the low to mid 10s. Sunday will feature plenty of sunshine and winds won’t be nearly as blustery. It’ll be a little milder with highs in the upper 30s and low to mid 40s.

Temperatures will start to come up more early next week, even with more clouds starting to come in. Monday will be a breezy day with partly sunny skies. Highs will range from the mid 40s northeast to the mid 50s in the south. Tuesday will be breezy again with mostly cloudy skies. Highs will range from the mid 40s north to the upper 50s southwest. Rain chances could return Tuesday night into Wednesday. The good news is that it should be all rain with milder temperatures on the way. Highs on Wednesday look to range from the lower 50s north to the mid 60s in the south. Temperatures may come down a little later in the week with a chance of rain still possible.

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