BILLINGS- The streets are finally starting to dry up in the Billings area after last night’s rainfall. Billings wound up with 0.21 inches of precipitation since midnight, all that coming down as rain.
In the meantime, the cloudy skies continue in the Billings area and temperatures are only into the mid-40s.
Around the rest of the state, temperatures are mostly into the 40s and 50s, although Cut Bank and Missoula were in the 30s.
The threat board is starting to fill up with Winter Storm Warnings and Winter Weather Advisories for a variety of snowfall amounts ranging from 3 to 18 inches of snow.
We even have a Flood Advisory in Meagher County. The recent rains are swelling the small streams and the whole Badger Creek is out of its banks flooding over some of the roadways there.
The Doppler radar and satellite imagery shows scattered rain showers continue to stream in from the southwest with heavier rain and snowfall amounts up in the northwest corner of the state.
Our high-resolution forecast model shows a surface low will continue to move into central Montana. It will continue to pull more rainfall into south-central Montana and Billings.
However, as a low tracks into Wyoming overnight, it will pull in cooler air from Canada, and it will change the rain over to snow Wednesday morning.
That snow will stick around through mid-afternoon and eventually start moving into Wyoming as the low-pressure cell heads into the central plains.
The computer models are still suggesting Billings could see 2 to 4 inches of snow and 6 to 10 inches over at Livingston and Bozeman.
If all the moisture comes down as snow, the computer models are suggesting Sheridan could see 14 to 20 inches of the white stuff. If it mixes with rain, it will be something less.
BILLINGS FORECAST
TONIGHT: Mostly cloudy with a 100% chance of rain likely this evening. Then rain and snow mixed overnight, and much colder. Snow accumulations around 1 inch possible by the morning. Northeast winds 10 to 20 mph. Low 34 degrees.
WEDNESDAY: Cloudy with a 70% chance of rain and snow likely in the morning and again in the afternoon and colder. Snow accumulations around another 1 inch. Northeast winds 10 to 20 mph. High 38 degrees.
THURSDAY: Partly sunny and a little warmer. Southwest winds 5 to 15 mph. High 46 degrees.
