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Q2 Weather: East Coast gets hammered while Billings remains tranquil

Posted at 3:35 PM, Sep 13, 2018
and last updated 2018-09-13 17:35:29-04

BILLINGS- We have a few cloudy skies and mild temperatures on the plate for Billings this Thursday afternoon.

The early Thursday afternoon temperatures continue to stay into the mid-to-upper 60s across much of Montana with a light Northeast wind at 5 mph.

Now if you add 100 miles-per-hour winds to that 5 mph, you will have what they are facing on the coast of North Carolina.

Hurricane Florence now has maximum sustained winds of 105 mph with wind gusts up to 125 mph.

It is currently a category 2 hurricane and the outer bands of rain are just now starting to brush across the North Carolina coast.

Meanwhile, back in Montana we have our own showers to deal with, although most of them are in the western and northern parts of the state.

Our set up as a little bit different than the East Coast. An upper-level is to the west and a ridge of high pressure is to the east.

The trough is pulling moisture in from the Pacific Ocean while the ridge is jamming it back out to the west and up to the north.

The end result is that the showers get caught up in the jet stream and do an end run around the Billings area and the rest of southeastern Montana.

These showers will continue to do this until the ridge of high pressure moves east, and that’s not likely until later this weekend.

So this means Billings will have ringside seats as the showers, from the West, continue to go around us, all while the temperatures remain very Fall-like.

BILLINGS FORECAST

 TONIGHT: Mostly cloudy and just a little cooler. North winds 5 to 15 mph. Low 47 degrees.

FRIDAY: Partly sunny and continued mild. Southwest winds 5 to 15 mph in the morning becoming northeasterly 10 to 20 mph in the afternoon. High 72 degrees.

SATURDAY: Mostly sunny and warmer. Northwest winds 5 to 10 mph the morning becoming southerly in the afternoon. High 80 degrees.