Lincoln and southeast Nebraska could be in for a stormy overnight, with the potential for strong winds, lightning and heavy rain. National Weather Service meteorologist Dirk Petersen tells KLIN News storms are expected to begin developing across north-central Nebraska and south-central South Dakota around 9:00 Monday night, with additional storms possible farther west.
“A lot of that activity is expected to wait until the overnight hours to move through eastern Nebraska.” Petersen says a larger cluster of storms could move through the Lincoln area around 5:00 Tuesday morning and linger into the late morning.
The strongest storms are expected to taper off around 7:00 a.m., but showers and thunderstorms could continue through nearly noon. Petersen says the recent rainfall could also increase the potential for flooding. “I don’t think it’ll take a whole lot of these kind of thunderstorm clusters to move through and dump a lot of rain to cause some issues.”
He says low-lying areas could see flooding, with the possibility of flash flooding overnight. That could make the Tuesday morning commute particularly challenging. Petersen says lingering storms Tuesday morning could also reduce the potential for severe weather Tuesday afternoon and evening.
Scattered showers and a few thunderstorms will remain possible, but the greater severe weather threat is expected to shift south of the area. Storm chances should generally decrease by the middle to latter part of the week, with temperatures cooling into the lower 80s before warming back up heading into the weekend.
With the potential for strong storms overnight, residents are encouraged to have multiple ways to receive weather warnings, including a weather radio or alerts on a mobile device.