A cold front brings strong winds and continued fire weather concerns to the area today

HASTINGS, Neb. (KSNB) - Behind a cold front, we’ll deal with strong north winds and cooler temperatures. It’ll heat right back up early next week. Then we look to potential moisture next next week.

Thursday: A cold front will continue it’s southward progress through the rest of the morning. Behind the cold front, winds are kicking in out of the north northeast. We’ll see winds pick up to around 15 to 30+ mph. Wind gusts may get as strong as 35 to 45 mph. This will keep the fire threat going this morning for a large part of North Central and Western Nebraska. Along with the strong winds, there is concern for dry lightning, which has already sparked a couple of fires overnight in Grant County near Hyannis and Ashby. Farther south, where it’ll be warmer, the wildfire threat will increase this afternoon with strengthening north northeast winds and relative humidity dropping to around 25%. We’ll see a wide range in temperatures today from the 40s northwest to near 80° southeast. Some will see temperatures level off, or possibly drop a little during the afternoon. This evening, winds will remain blustery, but gradually will lighten up through the late night. Meanwhile, there will be a small chance of rain over Southern Nebraska and Northern Kansas, but it won’t be much to write home about. Lows will dip back to the 20s and lower 30s by early Friday morning.

Friday through Monday: Friday will be a cool and breezy day, but should be fairly sunny. Highs temperatures will range from the upper 40s north to the upper 50s south. It’ll be chilly again Friday night with lows in the 20s and lower 30s. Out west, temperature may rise a bit late in the night as winds shift out of the south. Those winds will pick up and become rather strong on Saturday. This will give a boost in high temperatures on Saturday, ranging from the lower 60s east to the mid 70s west. The wildfire threat will likely return again on Saturday. Sunday will be warmer with highs from the upper 70s north and east to the upper 80s southwest. This could mean a few records in those warmer areas. Highs on Monday will climb back into the 80s across the area, with a few potential record highs again. There will be a slight chance of rain over the southeastern half of the area Monday afternoon and evening.

Tuesday and Beyond: Temperatures look to come back down to more seasonable conditions after Monday. Highs may be more in the 50s and 60s. More importantly, this could be a slightly more active pattern which may bring chances for precipitation back to the area.

Click here to subscribe to our KSNB Local4 daily digest and breaking news alerts delivered straight to your email inbox.