BILLINGS- Welcome to the last mild day for a few days as we get ready for an Arctic blast to drop down from Canada.
In the early afternoon, Billings is enjoying partly cloudy skies and temperatures working their way up into the upper 30s on their way to the low 40s.
Around the state, some of the temps are already into the 40s. At Lewistown and Livingsto,n we are little cooler in the northeast with 20s and low 30s and out in the west.
We have a pair of winter weather advisories. The first is in Yellowstone Park, which goes into effect Wednesday at 11 p.m. and stays until 5 a.m. Friday.
Snowfall amounts of four to nine inches are expected to make travel difficult around Yellowstone National Park.
Farther northwest, we have another winter weather advisory beginning at 11 a.m. Thursday and going until 5 a.m. Friday.
There we could see two to five inches of snow in the valleys and up to 10 inches in the mountains.
The Doppler radar shows lingering snow showers across eastern Idaho moving into western Wyoming, and scattered snow flurries moving through northeastern Montana.
The high-resolution forecast model shows a new cold front dropping down from Canada moving through Billings by 6:30 a.m. Thursday.
About the same time, a fresh batch of moisture will overrun that cold air from Canada and move into north-central Montana.
We think that batch of snow will do an end run around the Billings area, giving just a few scattered flurries Thursday evening into Friday morning.
We expect the weekend will bring just cold temperatures for much of Billings and south-central Montana.
The snowfall estimation is suggesting only light snow for Billings, while Missoula could see six to 10 inches of snow.
Temperatures will start to slide back Wednesday evening and drop all the way down to 22 degrees in the morning and get back up to 26 degree by Tuesday afternoon.
This will be a major weather pattern change, one that takes us from warm and dry to a very cold and in some cases, very wet pattern.
BILLINGS FORECAST
TONIGHT: Partly cloudy and cold. Southwest winds 5 to 15 mph. Low 22 degrees.
THURSDAY: Mostly cloudy with a 30 percent chance for snow in the afternoon and colder. East winds 5 to 15 mph. High 29 degrees.
FRIDAY:: Cloudy with a 40 percent chance for snow in the morning then a chance for snow in the afternoon. Northeast winds 5 to 10 mph. High 36 degrees.
