BILLINGS — It will be cooler and drier today behind a cold front heightening fire weather concerns this afternoon. Don't cause any sparks! (see attached graphic)
The big weather story will be the strong winds chasing behind the front. Gusts over 40 mph (stronger in high elevations) will be possible west and south of Yellowstone County today. Billings could feel gusts up to 30 mph. The stronger winds will subside by this evening, but breezy west-northwest winds will linger through tomorrow.
Most of the moisture with this system will wrap around a low that will slide across the northern part of the state keeping the bulk of the rain in northwest and northern Montana. A few isolated showers and thunderstorms could pop up east of Billings tonight on the back end of the low as it exits the state. Billings may also get a shower or even an isolated storm.
High pressure and downslope flow will allow the very dry conditions to dig in tomorrow so fire weather concerns will remain elevated. Winds will ease up a bit, though.
After near seasonal highs today and tomorrow, southerly flow will warm temperatures up again Friday through the weekend. This will also bring moisture back into the area and increase chances of showers and thunderstorms across the area on Sunday.
A look ahead to next week shows a better chance of rain on Labor Day as an area of low pressure moves up toward the region. This would also bring another cool down early next week. There is still some uncertainty on this, but the picture will become clearer over the next few days.
Daytime highs will be mainly in the 80s today through Friday, 80s/90s Saturday and Sunday then 70s/80s Monday and Tuesday.
Lows will be in the 50s/60s through Sunday night.
Miller Robson
Q2 Morning Meteorologist
miller.robson@ktvq.com
