Billings officially wound up with two inches of snow from Wednesday night’s snowstorm. A few miles southwest of Billings, three inches fell. Reedpoint reported six inches of snow, and Cooke City had 11 inches of snow.
Early Thursday afternoon, Billings is already up to 13 degrees with mostly sunny skies. However, we started at 2 degrees above zero.
Along the Hi-Line, Cut Bank and Havre both reported 20 degrees below zero for overnight lows while southwest Montana reported teens above zero.
Since then, everybody has warmed up in the state, but we’re still below zero up at Cut Bank and Havre.
As forecasted, a new system is starting to make its way in from the southwest, and the threat board is filling up.
Projected snowfall will range anywhere from six to 14 inches in the southwest corner of the state more like three to six inches in northern Montana. Plus a wind chill of -45 degrees in the northeast.
The Doppler radar shows the snow is already starting to make its way out of Idaho into southwest Montana.
The high-resolution computer model shows it will only be a matter of time before it starts pushing into south-central Montana and Billings.
Somewhere around 9 to 10 p.m. is when the first snowflakes should fly into Billings from this next wave of snow.
The snow showers will start exiting Billings early Friday morning, and we should see partly cloudy skies for the rest of the day Friday.
All the snowfall forecast computer models suggest Billings will see anywhere from two to six inches of snow.
We seem to like the GEM computer model the best. That one shows about one to three inches of snow for Billings.
We will probably stay into the mid-20s on Friday and Saturday, but drop down to the low teens for highs on Sunday and Monday and back to the mid-20s by the middle part of next week.
BILLINGS FORECAST
TONIGHT: Mostly cloudy with a slight chance of snowfall this evening and a 100 percent chance overnight. Snow accumulations should be around 2 inches. Northeast winds 5 to 15 mph. Low 10 degrees.
FRIDAY: Mostly cloudy with a 50 percent chance for snow in the morning. Northeast winds 5 to 15 mph the morning shifting to the South in the afternoon. High 25 degrees.
SATURDAY: Mostly cloudy with a 40 percent chance for snow. Northwest winds 5 to 10 mph. High 24 degrees.
