BILLINGS- We have crystal clear blue skies in Billings on the second day of 2019.
Not only that, we have some fairly comfortable temperatures this Wednesday. The temperature in Billings in the early afternoon is already up into the mid-20s and expected to go higher.
In fact, we already have temperatures into the 40s along the Hi-Line, 20s out in the west and a few 30s and 40s in eastern Montana.
The big story you will notice today, besides the beautiful clear skies, is the high winds. In Billings, they’ve already been gusting up to 38 mph.
Along the Beartooth foothills, we have a Wind Advisory until 5 a.m. Friday for winds gusting 55 to 65 mph.
A little farther north up towards Harlowton, it’s a High Wind Warning for the same 55 to 65 mile-per-hour wind gusts.
A little farther north in the Rocky Mountain front, west of Great Falls, we have a High Wind Warning for southwesterly winds 40 to 50 mph and gusts to 95 mph. That stays with us until 5 p.m. Friday.
The Doppler radar and satellite imagery shows most of the activity will stay up in southern Canada.
We could see a few scattered snow flurries around Kalispell and northwestern Montana, while clear skies are expected in the south-central part of the state.
Our high-resolution forecast model shows we can expect mostly sunny skies and windy conditions for the rest of the day.
A few more clouds roll in on Thursday afternoon and again on Friday, but the wind finally dies down on Friday.
Temperatures will stay fairly flat for the next 24 hours mostly into the 30s.
BILLINGS FORECAST
TONIGHT: Partly cloudy windy and not as cold. Southwest winds 15 to 30 mph with gusts up to 40 mph overnight. Low 26 degrees.
THURSDAY: Mostly sunny, windy and warmer. Southwest winds 15 to 30 mph. High 39 degrees.
FRIDAY: Partly sunny, not as windy but warmer. High 44 degrees.
