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Q2 Weather: Rain to continue tonight; but mixes with snow in the morning

Posted at 8:03 PM, May 17, 2019
and last updated 2019-05-17 22:03:20-04

The raindrops on the lens tell you that the rain is still falling in Billings here in the early afternoon on Friday.

The early afternoon temperatures are into the 40s with rain continuing to fall across much of the region.

In fact, 40s are about all you see in Eastern Montana until you get to Missoula, they are topping out at 52°, on this Friday afternoon.

Our Thunderstorm Outlook for Friday shows isolated thunderstorms are possible in northern Wyoming and southern Montana today, but all the severe stuff should be in South Dakota.

The Doppler radar does show that heavy rainfall is still possible across much of Montana today.

We will continue to see wave after wave of rainfall and some of it heavy throughout the afternoon.

This whole rainy pattern is all rotating around a huge upper level low pressure cell over Utah the Great Basin area.

The low is pulling moisture in off the Pacific Ocean throwing it up against the mountains and the mountains are funneling it up into Wyoming and Montana.

The High-Resolution forecast model shows we will continue to see heavier rainfall off and on throughout the afternoon.

By 5:30 p.m. tonight we are expecting another round of heavy rain to move into Billings. But get this, by Saturday morning the rain will change over to all snow or mix with snow.

We could even see some of the snow accumulate on the grassy areas.

By Sunday the whole thing spins out of the area and we finally start to dry out.

However, with Billings getting another .89 inches of rain. I believe it will be too wet to mow the rest of next week.

BILLINGS FORECAST

TONIGHT: Rain and isolated thunderstorms early in the evening, then more overnight and colder. Northeast winds 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain is 80%. Low 39°.

SATURDAY: Mostly cloudy with an 80% chance for rain in the morning and rain likely in the afternoon. North winds 10 to 20 mph. High 44°.

SUNDAY: Mostly cloudy with only a 20% chance for rain showers in the afternoon. Northeast winds 5 to 15 mph. High 50°.