Kearney, NE 68845 Weather

Key Messages

- Above-normal temperatures continue through Saturday. More seasonable temperatures return next week.

- Friday will be quite windy with gusts near 45 MPH.

- Chances for rain return to western areas as early as Saturday, but more widespread rain is not expected until Sunday night into Monday.

Update

Issued at 247 AM CDT Thu Oct 22 2026

Fog remains possible this morning, although latest CAMs suggest that this should be fairly patchy and mainly confined to low- lying areas. Any fog that does develop should quickly mix out as southerly winds increase 9-10am. Temperatures are expected to be similar to Wednesday (upper 70s for most), but with stronger winds. South-southeast winds are expected to gust in the 20-30 MPH range through the afternoon hours.

Continued southerly winds (and increased low-level moisture) will keep overnight lows on the warmer side tonight. Many locations may only briefly dip into the 50s.

Southerly winds increase even more on Friday as a deep upper system crosses the Rockies. Model output generally keeps wind gusts in the 35-45 MPH range, although it wouldn't be surprising to see this exceeded at least a few locations.

As this system moves into the central Plains this weekend, chances for rain return to the area. A few showers or weak thunderstorms are possible already on Saturday, although the main focus will be western parts of the area. More widespread rain is not expected until Sunday night into Monday. In total, global ensembles show a 20-50% chance to see an inch or more of rain, with the highest probabilities favoring western parts of the area.

Discussion

Issued at 200 PM CDT Wed Oct 21 2026

After a bit of morning fog, clear skies returned to most of the local area this afternoon with a few high clouds filtering in from the west. With a very weak surface pressure gradient in place, light winds have prevailed, with most automated stations indicating winds around 5 MPH or less for most of the day. These light winds, combined with well above normal temperatures, have made for a spectacular Fall day.

For tonight, expect the continuation of light winds and elevated dewpoints to allow for the development of some fog during the overnight hours, although with increasing high clouds, confidence in widespread and dense fog is lowered. That said, both the 12Z and 18Z HRRR hinted at the potential for some dense fog across mainly our western areas towards daybreak Thursday, not unlike what we saw this morning. Given the conflicting signals, settled on just introducing the wording of fog into the forecast package for Thursday morning along with some patchy dense fog wording to the HWO.

Overall, Thursday is expected to be another nice day across the local area despite increasing southerly winds of 10 to 20 MPH by afternoon. These increasing southerly winds will be in response to an increasing pressure gradient as the upper level low off the west coast moves into the Great Basin, and surface low pressure starts deepening on the lee side of the Rockies. This surface pressure gradient will increase further on Friday, making for windy day across the local area. While temperatures will continue on the very warm side for late October, winds will likely be unpleasant by midday Friday, with gusts of 40 to 50 MPH possible across the entire area.

As the west coast trough then lifts out of the southwest late in the weekend, precipitation chances should begin to increase, with rainfall becoming likely across much of the area Sunday/Monday. Give the very minimal instability, cannot rule out a thunderstorm over this time period, but a strong or severe thunderstorm appears unlikely. As this system pushes east early next week, cooler air will filter in from the north, dropping temperatures back down closer to climatology (upper 50s to near 60). These cooler temps, along with much more limited (if any) chances for precip will then linger through at least the end of next week as a progressive and generally zonal upper level flow pattern is realized.

Aviation

Issued at 613 AM CDT Thu Oct 22 2026

For KGRI/KEAR Airports:

Patchy fog is ongoing across central Nebraska. The worst of it should remain largely to the west of the terminals, but at least MVFR vis may continue to impact EAR through around 14-15Z. GRI is more favored to remain VFR, but some low-lying fog cannot be totally ruled out there either.

After 15Z, confidence is relatively high in VFR conditions for the rest of the period.

South winds increase today with gusts near 25kts. LLWS is expected tonight into Friday morning.