BILLINGS- Look at those beautiful blue skies in Billings Thursday, plus we are finally above zero for a change.
In fact, in the early afternoon, in Billings, we made it up to 7 degrees above zero.
It has been a long climb all morning as temperatures slowly began warming up. We started at -14 degrees in Billings, but other places like Havre started at -41 degrees, while Cut Bank started at -33 degrees.
Since then, current temperatures have warmed up to the above zero stage, and many places in the south and still into the teens below zero across the Hi-Line, but they had a long way to go.
Now we still have a Winter Weather Advisory for two to five inches of snow from Kalispell the Havre, plus we have another Wind Chill Advisory across the Hi-Line for wind chills to -40 degrees.
In addition, we have a Wind Chill Warning across the northeast corner of the state for wind chills as low as -50 degrees. In the Billings area, we have no such warning or advisory.
The Doppler radar shows just a few wispy high clouds up in the northwest corner of the state, clearing skies across the rest of Montana, especially east of the Divide.
A lot of this very cold Arctic air is slowly draining into the Dakotas.
However, our high-resolution forecast model shows a new batch of snow moving into the northwest corner of the state by Friday morning.
The snow showers will spin around western Montana on Friday and maybe send a few flurries across the Hi-Line by Saturday, but Billings looks to be mostly dry.
In fact, temperatures are forecast to stay into the single digits throughout the rest of the night and jump up to about 20 degrees by 1:30 p.m. Friday.
BILLINGS FORECAST
TONIGHT: Partly cloudy and warmer. Southwest winds 5 to 15 mph creating wind chill factors of 15 to 25 below zero. Low -1 degrees.
FRIDAY: Increasing clouds and increasing temperature. South winds 5 to 15 mph creating wind chill factors as low as 10 to 20 below zero. High 20 degrees.
SATURDAY: Mostly cloudy with a 20 percent chance for snow and continued cold. Northeast winds 5 to 15 mph. High 4 degrees.
