The National Weather Service is cautioning that very high fire danger is expected through the remainder of Sunday afternoon, though the strongest winds are expected to weaken prior to reaching the lowest relative humidity of the day.
Temperatures have reached the mid-80s by early afternoon with the humidity level down to 25% and winds gusting to 15 to 20 mph.
Thunderstorm chances will increase from around 20 to 30 percent late Monday afternoon to 90 to 100 percent Monday night, and linger through Tuesday.
Some storms during this time period could be severe (20 percent chance), with the highest chances being Monday evening across much of the area and again late Tuesday morning into Tuesday afternoon, mainly in far southeast Nebraska into southwest Iowa.
Large hail and damaging winds will be the biggest threats but tornadoes and localized flooding will also be possible.
Ahead of any storm development very high fire danger is expected for much of the area, with some portions of northeast Nebraska into west-central Iowa potentially reaching the extreme fire danger
category.