Council Bluffs, IA Weather

Key Messages

- Shower and storm chances persist over northeast Nebraska through Monday. The best chance will remain northwest of a line from Columbus, to Norfolk, to Wayne (60-90%).

- Periodic rain chances return to all of eastern Nebraska and western Iowa late Tuesday through the end of the week.

- High temperatures remain in the 60s across NE Nebraska with highs in the 70s warming to near 80 toward the end of the week across SE Nebraska and SW Iowa.

Discussion

Issued at 1122 PM CDT Sat Oct 24 2026

A cold front moved across eastern Nebraska this evening, currently hung up across far southeast Nebraska. Temperatures dropped behind the front with most of eastern Nebraska and western Iowa now in the mid-40s to mid-50s. Looking at the broader upper-level pattern, we have a ridge over the Central CONUS this evening. A trough stretches from the Montana Rockies south into Nevada and far southern California. A strong nearly meridional Jet streak is in place stretching from New Mexico north through the Dakotas.

Overnight into Sunday we'll see a developing Low over eastern Colorado ramp up southerly flow over the Southern and Central Plains. This will push the cold front back north as a warm front, bringing warmer temperatures back into eastern Nebraska and southwest Iowa for Sunday afternoon. While highs stay in the low 50s for our far northern counties, highs across southeast Nebraska will be in the upper 70s to near 80. Rain chances also get pushed back north mostly into South Dakota for much of the day on Sunday.

The developing surface low travels along the frontal boundary northeast across central Nebraska Sunday night into Monday, increasing rain chances again for northeast Nebraska. Meanwhile the rest of eastern Nebraska and southwest Iowa mainly sees high clouds with occasional breaks of sunshine through Monday. The open wave bringing this low pressure system through shifts off to the northeast as another Aleutian Low pushes in to the PacNW. As this trough moves across the Northern Plains, we'll see another round of potential showers and storms on Tuesday evening across more of our area. Even with these systems moving through our frontal boundary from the weekend stays fairly stationary, occasionally dropping south then shifting back north. This will keep our temperatures fairly steady through the week with cooler highs in the 50s and 60s over NE Nebraska and highs staying in the 70s to near 80 across southeast Nebraska and southwest Iowa.

Another system dropping south out of the Gulf of Alaska, riding down the West Coast toward the end of the week will set up more southwesterly flow across the western CONUS. This builds up ridging over the Central US trending temperatures slightly warmer toward the end of the workweek. Weak shortwaves will keep periodic showers and storms in the forecast with no organized threat for anything severe in sight.

Aviation

Issued at 1250 AM CDT Sun Oct 25 2026

KOFK: Expect shower activity to continue over the next few hours at the terminal with ceilings falling to MVFR by 08Z. Rain chances clear out by 12Z, with additional chances again Sunday evening. Winds should be light and variable through the forecast period.

KLNK/KOMA: VFR conditions are currently in place at the terminals. Expect ceilings to lower some, particularly at KLNK Sunday afternoon, improving again by evening. Expect light and variable winds through the day. Precipitation chances should stay mainly north to northwest of the terminals during the TAF period.

Oax Watches

NE...None. IA...None.