Nebraska · 335 m elevation

Barometric Pressure in Omaha, NE

• 30.02Average pressure (inHg, sea level)
• 242.5Swing days a year · 6th of 50
• 145.0Big-swing days a year (≥10 hPa)
• 142.7Significant 24h drop days a year

Overview

Omaha averages 30.02 inHg (1016.5 hPa) with 242.5 significant pressure swing days a year — 6th most volatile of 50 US cities. Winter drives most swings.

Omaha's mean sea-level pressure over 2015-2024 was 30.02 inHg (1016.5 hPa), with 90% of hours falling between 29.65 inHg (1004 hPa) and 30.46 inHg (1031.5 hPa). The median reading was 30.00 inHg (1015.9 hPa). What separates Omaha from cities with similar averages is spread: its standard deviation of 0.25 inHg (8.38 hPa) ranks 3rd of 50 cities nationally, behind only Salt Lake City and Boston.

Omaha sits at 335 meters (about 1,100 feet), and that elevation shows up on any barometer not corrected to sea level. Mean station pressure is 28.84 inHg (976.6 hPa) — about 1.18 inHg (39.9 hPa) below the sea-level figures quoted in forecasts. A home barometer reading 28.8 inHg here is not registering a storm; it is registering the altitude. Set the offset once, and the day-to-day movement is what matters.

By national ranking, Omaha is a top-tier volatility city: 6th of 50 for significant swing days (242.5 per year against a national median of 180.7) and 6th for big-swing days (145 per year against a median of 86.1, roughly 1.7 times as many). It is essentially tied with Milwaukee (242.7) and trails Minneapolis (249.9) and Denver (281.6). Against the calm end of the list the gap is enormous — Miami logs 19.8 swing days a year, so Omaha sees about 12 times as many, and roughly 45 times as many big-swing days. Omaha is the most volatile city on the list that is neither coastal, Rocky Mountain, nor Great Lakes: a pure continental Plains signature.

Migraine & pressure-sensitivity outlook

• Low — under 6 hPa (0.18 inHg)
• Elevated — 6 to 10 hPa
• High — 10 hPa (0.30 inHg) or more
• Dashed outline = forecast (after today)

Association only. This calendar shows days when pressure changed — or is forecast to change — sharply over 24 hours, conditions associated with pressure sensitivity in some people. It is not a prediction of symptoms, not a diagnosis, and not medical advice. The 30 days of history are there so you can compare the days you actually felt something against what the barometer did. Talk to a clinician about headache or migraine management.

For people who track pressure, Omaha is a demanding location and a strongly seasonal one. A typical 24-hour change is 0.13 inHg (4.4 hPa), which is unremarkable, but the tail is long: one day in 20 moves 0.49 inHg (16.6 hPa) or more. Significant swings — 0.18 inHg (6 hPa) or greater over 24 hours — occur 242.5 days a year, and 145 of those reach the big-swing threshold of 0.30 inHg (10 hPa). Falls specifically, the direction many pressure-sensitive people report as the more noticeable one, come 142.7 days a year.

Timing matters more than the annual totals. Drop days peak at 17.6 per month in both February and November, run between 15.8 and 16.6 in December, January, and March, and fall to 2.4 in July. The conditions many pressure-sensitive people report as triggers are concentrated in a roughly five-month window from November through March, and the mid-summer stretch is a genuine lull rather than a statistical footnote — July and August together average fewer swing days than February alone.

Comparatively, Omaha ranks 6th of 50 for swing frequency and 6th for big swings, alongside Milwaukee and just behind Minneapolis. Against Phoenix it sees about 3.2 times the swing days; against Los Angeles, roughly 19 times the big-swing days. Anyone arriving from a Sun Belt or Pacific coastal city should expect a substantially busier barometer, especially in winter. None of this predicts how any individual will feel — pressure swings are associated with symptoms some people report, and the value of these numbers is knowing which months in Omaha carry the volatility and which reliably do not.

Seasonal patterns

Omaha effectively runs two pressure climates. From November through March the barometer is rarely still: January averages 27.0 significant swing days, December 26.9, March 26.5, November 26.3, and February 25.7 — in a typical winter month, roughly five days in six clear the 0.18 inHg (6 hPa) threshold. February carries the year's widest scatter, a monthly standard deviation of 0.31 inHg (10.64 hPa), with January just behind at 0.30 inHg (10.26 hPa). Monthly means also peak in winter: 30.17 inHg (1021.6 hPa) in January and 30.15 inHg (1020.9 hPa) in February.

Summer is a different place. July averages just 7.1 swing days and a standard deviation of 0.12 inHg (3.98 hPa), just over a third of February's scatter, and August is barely busier at 8.9. Monthly means bottom out at 29.88 inHg (1011.8 hPa) in June. The driver is straightforward: winter brings Plains cyclogenesis and Arctic air surges moving across flat, unobstructed terrain, while summer is governed by a weak, uniform subtropical ridge where the active weather is convective and short-lived rather than synoptic.

The extremes cluster accordingly. All five of the sharpest 24-hour drops on record fell in January or February: -1.23 inHg (-41.5 hPa) ending January 8, 2015; -0.96 inHg (-32.5 hPa) on February 27, 2023; -0.93 inHg (-31.5 hPa) on January 10, 2017; -0.91 inHg (-30.7 hPa) on January 17, 2020; and -0.90 inHg (-30.5 hPa) on January 31, 2018. The first is the defining event in the record — Omaha's all-time high of 31.23 inHg (1057.7 hPa) was set at midday on January 7, 2015, and the barometer gave back more than an inch of mercury in the day that followed. The all-time low, 29.00 inHg (982.1 hPa), came on March 14, 2019. The largest 24-hour rise was 1.18 inHg (40.1 hPa), and the fastest six-hour fall was 0.52 inHg (17.5 hPa).

Month by month

Swing days: 24-hour change of at least 6 hPa (0.18 inHg). Drop days: 24-hour fall of at least 6 hPa. Averages per year, 2015–2024.

Records and extremes

Sharpest 24-hour drops, 2015–2024

Nearby cities

• Kansas City, MO
• Wichita, KS
• Minneapolis, MN
• Tulsa, OK
• St. Louis, MO
• Oklahoma City, OK

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