BILLINGS- Weather-wise, Thursday looks to be like another quiet day in Billings.
The early afternoon temperature in Billings is already up to 83 degrees, with a southwesterly wind and a little light haze in the air.
Around the rest of Montana, temperatures are mostly to the 70s in the west, and 80s in the east and almost 90 degrees at Worland, Wyo.
Our thunderstorm outlook for Thursday reserves only the southeast corner of the state for isolated thunderstorms.
Everywhere else, we just have some mid-level moisture to work with Thursday.
That along with the heat of the day may be enough to cause some of the mid-level moisture to rise to the next cooler level in the atmosphere.
This, in turn, would cause the moisture to condense into raindrops and caused some high-based showers to develop over the area.
These are the kind of showers that evaporate before they hit the ground, which we sometimes call Virga. The northwest corner of the state is just loaded with them right now.
Plus, we are also seeing a few high based showers develop over south-central Montana in the early afternoon.
The high-resolution forecast model shows we could see these high-based showers continue across most of south-central Montana Thursday afternoon and again Friday.
Most of these raindrops will not hit the ground but we do have a slight chance of rain tonight in the Billings area because of it. The model shows Friday could also see some high based showers.
Our temperatures should remain fairly comfortable through the weekend but start to warm up as we head into the middle part of next week.
BILLINGS FORECAST
TONIGHT: Mostly cloudy with a 20% chance for an isolated rain shower this evening. North winds 5 to 10 mph. Low 56 degrees.
FRIDAY: Sunny, dry and mild. North winds 5 to 10 mph. High 80 degrees.
SATURDAY: Mostly sunny and continued dry and mild. North winds 5 to 10 mph. High 81 degrees.
