769 FXUS63 KLBF 102351 AFDLBFArea Forecast Discussion National Weather Service North Platte NE 651 PM CDT Wed Sep 10 2025
.KEY MESSAGES...
- Thunderstorm chances will remain mainly isolated and over far western portions of the of the forecast area through Thursday night. The threat for thunderstorms will expand eastward Friday into the weekend.
- Temperatures over the next 7 days have a high probability to be above normal for this time of year. For reference, average high temperatures typically range from 80 to 83 degrees over the next 7 days.
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.SYNOPSIS... Issued at 342 PM CDT Wed Sep 10 2025
H5 analysis this morning had high pressure over western Texas. A ridge extended north of this feature into north central Canada. West of this feature, closed low pressure was located over northern California with a trough extending south to approximately 300 miles off the coast of southern California. East of the ridge, a shortwave trough was present from the western Great Lakes south into the lower Ohio Valley. South- southwesterly flow extended from southern California, into the intermountain west. Within this flow, shortwaves were noted over Idaho and Montana. Another shortwave was noted over Central Kansas this morning. Patchy fog and low cloudiness had developed overnight from southwestern into central and northeastern portions of the forecast area. This cloudiness and fog had burned off by noontime across the area. Skies were mainly clear this afternoon across western and north central Nebraska and 2 PM CT temperatures ranged from 81 O`Neill to 86 degrees at Gordon.
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.SHORT TERM /THROUGH THURSDAY NIGHT/... Issued at 342 PM CDT Wed Sep 10 2025
Tonight through Thursday night...Low end precipitation chances tonight and again Thursday night are the main forecast challenges in the short term. For tonight, weakly forced convection over the front ranges of Colorado and eastern Wyoming, will attempt to track to the northeast into western Nebraska into the early evening hours. As this activity tracks northeast, it will lift into a H5 ridge axis, increasing hts. aloft, and increasing stability. However, locations in the far northwest will see some limited instability for a short duration during the late afternoon and early evening hours (mainly before sunset) and couldn`t totally rule out an isolated thunderstorm threat. Elsewhere, overnight there will be a fog threat, mainly over portions of southwestern into portions of central Nebraska. This is supported by the latest SREF visby probabilities < 3SM which are in the 25 to 45 percent range tonight. However, surface visby`s in the HRRR and CONSShort are less optimistic for fog tonight. Given the fact we have been dry today, decided to limit mention of fog to patchy. On Thursday afternoon, another round of convection will develop over the central Rockies into eastern Wyoming. With the ridge axis being displaced a tad further east Thursday, the threat for storms should shift further east, encompassing the eastern panhandle and northwestern Sandhills Thursday afternoon/evening. Current thoughts on POPs are to run slight chances west of a line from Valentine to Grant. As for the severe threat, it appears to be greatest generally over the eastern Panhandle and northwestern Sandhills. In those areas, steep mid level lapse rates seem to favor a large hail threat.
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.LONG TERM /FRIDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY/... Issued at 342 PM CDT Wed Sep 10 2025
The broad trough of low pressure over the western CONUS will migrate east into the intermountain west Friday. Ridging over the central and southern plains, will migrate east into the Arklatex and Ozarks. Resultant instability will increase from north central into southwestern Nebraska Friday afternoon with the greatest instability once again over the panhandle and northwestern Nebraska. On Saturday, the upper level trough will lift onto the high plains of the western Dakotas, eastern Montana, eastern Wyoming and the Nebraska Panhandle. The period from Saturday night into Sunday appears to be the greatest threat for precipitation across the forecast area over the next 7 days. This is supported by the ECMWF ensembles, which almost all of them have measurable pcpn for the FA during this period. After dry conditions Monday, a secondary threat for storms will arrive toward the middle of next week as another upper level trough of low pressure enters the Intermountain west.
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.AVIATION /00Z TAFS THROUGH 00Z FRIDAY/... Issued at 631 PM CDT Wed Sep 10 2025
VFR conditions are expected through the majority of the forecast period.
Expecting passing high clouds through much of the period. Early Thursday morning, expecting some low stratus to move in southwest and central Nebraska. Believe this should bring some degraded conditions to LBF through daybreak. Conditions should improve for the daytime with steady southerly winds gusting around 25 knots. Isolated to widely scattered shower and weak thunderstorms are possible in the afternoon but confidence in impacting any terminal remains low. Will carry a VCTS mention at VTN but omit mention at LBF.
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.LBF WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... None.
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SYNOPSIS...Buttler SHORT TERM...Buttler LONG TERM...Buttler AVIATION...NMJ
NWS LBF Office Area Forecast Discussion