BILLINGS — Dense, patchy fog will be popping up all around the region Thursday morning. This could lead to reduced visibility to less than half a mile in spots. Take it easy while commuting.
Outside of a few lingering snow showers across area mountains early Thursday morning, there will be a brief break from precipitation across the area through late morning. Daytime highs will be mainly in the 40s under cloudy skies.
A cold front/Clipper system is forecast to dive down from the north Thursday afternoon into the evening, bringing a chance of more precipitation and gusty north winds through Friday morning. Winter Storm Warnings and Winter Weather Advisories will be in portions of the area. It will be colder behind the front, with highs in the 30s and 40s on Friday.
While it will be all snow in the mountains, lower elevations will see rain first (with a few isolated thunderstorms possible) before transitioning to all snow Thursday evening through early Friday morning. Snowfall could exceed 1 foot in the mountains with several inches possible in foothills. As of now, in the lower elevations, areas along and south of a line from Livingston to Billings to Alzada will have the best chance of receiving 1-3" although Red Lodge could pick up near 8".
Projected snow totals:
Columbus, Lodge Grass, Sheridan, WY- 2-3"
Billings, Livingston, Big Timber, Gardiner, Lame Deer, Broadus, Ekalaka- 1-2"
Alazada- 1"
Elsewhere- less than 1"
Snow showers will taper off from west to east during the day as high pressure moves in, bringing dry and warmer weather through the weekend and into the middle of next week. However, some models hint at the possibility of light precipitation Monday night into Tuesday morning.
Daytime highs will be in the 40s and 50s on Saturday, 50s and 60s on Sunday, then 60s and possibly the low 70s on Monday and Tuesday.
Nighttime lows will be in the 20s on Thursday night, teens and 20s on Friday night, 20s and 30s through the weekend, then 30s and 40s on Monday night.
Miller Robson
Q2 Morning Meteorologist
miller.robson@ktvq.com
