Late December sunrise in central Nebraska, (Brian Neben, Courtesy)
KEARNEY — After negative wind chill values to start the week, there will be a brief warm up into the 50s by mid-week. This will be followed by more seasonable temperatures due to a cold front on Thursday.
According to the National Weather Service – Hastings, a mild and dry period is in store for central Nebraska through at least the upcoming weekend. The one exception is on Thursday afternoon when a back door cold front will drop the temperatures closer to seasonable values.
A back door cold front is a front which approaches from the north to northeast instead of from the more common directions of north to west.
Dry conditions will continue to dominate the forecast through the rest of the week as the local area finds itself under northeast flow aloft as there is high pressure to the west and low pressure to the east.
A mini-warm up will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday as light winds, under the influence of a weak pressure gradient, turn westerly. This will close off the cold air advection pattern and open up a warming downslope flow regime, per NWS Hastings.
Highs will reach the mid-40s and low 50s on Tuesday and upper 40s and upper 50s on Wednesday.
Following this, a fairly week cold front will pass through on New Years Day and drop highs around 10 to 15 degrees into the mid-30s and upper 40s. Cloud cover will play a large role in how high temperatures reach.
By Friday, southerly winds will help warm up temperatures back into the 40s and 50s to end the week.
The next shortwave disturbance may not even reach the local rea until at least next Sunday or Monday, keeping the pattern aloft stagnant for this time of year.
