BILLINGS — Our brief warm-up breaks down during the day on Monday. Wind and showers, even a rumble of thunder, will signal a change.
Sunday night/Monday morning will be fairly quiet with lows mainly in the 30s to low 40s. With increasing clouds during the day Monday, a warm-up may be held back a bit. But with an approaching cold front boosting temperatures up ahead of it, Billings to the East should still see upper 60s to low 70s for a high.
Winds will increase in the mountain foothills Sunday evening through Monday. The Livingston/Nye area could see 40 to 55 mph wind gusts, and Big Timber to Red Lodge expect gusts to around 40 mph.
While we've been talking about the chance of Billings reaching 70 on Monday for the last several days, the odds right now looks slightly lower. The cloud cover will increase and afternoon showers will start to move off the Western mountains and foothills holding the temperatures down a bit.
The chance of rain/snow increases from West to East Monday evening as a cold front moves through the area. An isolated thunderstorm or two Monday afternoon is possible.
There will be a break in the precipitation early Tuesday, but the chance of rain quickly starts to increase during the afternoon and Tuesday night. The heaviest precipitation has a bull's-eye to the East of Billings across Eastern plains.
Much of the area could pick up a chance to 4/10 of an inch of total precipitation. Snow will remain in the higher elevations, but some wet snow is possible Tuesday night through Wednesday morning.
Most of the temperatures through the week will stay in the 40s to low 50s with lows in the 20s and 30s. There is a lot of uncertainty in the extended forecast, but the general trend is a bit of a warm-up for the weekend.
