BILLINGS- On this Friday afternoon, we have mostly cloudy skies with a few sun breaks in Billings.
The temperature seems to be responding to what is probably going to be called the January thaw, as we warm up into the mid-40s.
And in the Billings area, even the winds are not screaming like they were the last few days. It is still a little breezy out of the southwest at 23 mph, but not 40 or 50 mph.
Elsewhere around Montana, temperatures are mostly in the 40s and 50s. East of the Divide, it’s more like 30s and 40s out in the west.
The winds are still pretty gusty up along the Hi-Line and along the extreme eastern edge of the divide. There, the winds have been gusting from 47 to 56 mph.
In fact, we have a High Wind Warning still in effect for the high line for winds gusting from 60 to 65 mph.
The Doppler radar and satellite imagery show a few scattered snow showers on the Rocky Mountain front just northwest of Great Falls and a few lingering flurries around Missoula.
Elsewhere, we still have a few mid- to high-level clouds across the rest of eastern Montana today.
The high-resolutionn forecast model shows the snow showers right where they are supposed to be, but we also see cloudy skies lingering along the eastern edge of the state.
Those clouds will give way to a mostly sunny sky Saturday morning in the Billings area and then mostly cloudy skies rolling in for Saturday night into Sunday morning.
Even those clouds in eastern Montana will slide off to the Dakotas by Sunday afternoon and let the sun shine in for Billings and the rest of south-central Montana.
Now we still might see a few scattered snow showers in the Beartooth and Bighorn Mountains, but those will be in the highest elevations.
BILLINGS FORECAST
TONIGHT: Mostly cloudy and not as windy but cool. Southwest winds 5 to 15 mph. Low 28 degrees.
SATURDAY: Partly sunny and getting warmer. Southwest winds 5 to 10 mph. High 44 degrees.
SUNDAY: Mostly sunny and continued warm. Southwest winds 10 to 20 mph. High 45 degrees.
