BILLINGS — In the short term, wildfire smoke and hot temperatures will be the big weather concerns. By the end of the week, we'll level the temperatures off closer to seasonal averages but that could come with a few thunderstorms.
Air quality has become a bigger concern with more smoke moving into the region. From Canadian wildfires, from the Pacific Northwest, and from Montana and Wyoming fires. We'll look for the smoke and haze to increase on Monday.
While the smoke could hold the highs back by a few degrees, hot temperatures are still our biggest concern early in the week. Reading this will be widespread in the 90s, with triple digits likely, especially on Wednesday and Thursday.
This will be one of the longer stretches of afternoon highs consistently reaching 90° or hotter. Thursday could be a record hot day for Billings, with the 25th of July being the only day of the month without a record high in the triple digits.
A “ridge crasher” moves through Thursday, generating hot temperatures ahead of it. Thunderstorms with wind will increase the potential for fires to start or spread by Thursday afternoon and evening, so use care with sparks or flame.
Just some scattered storms Friday and through the weekend with temperatures closer to late July averages. That means mainly 50s in the morning and 80s in the afternoons.
