BILLINGS — A shortwave disturbance will sweep through on Thursday, bringing a chance of rain and snow to the lower elevations and snow over the mountains with up to 4" inches falling across the Beartooths and Absarokas and in Cooke City. Winds are quite strong with southwest gusts up to 65 mph from Livingston to Nye and up to 50 mph from Big Timber to Harlowton. A Wind Advisory for the Beartooth foothills and Livingston area is effect through Thursday afternoon.
A better chance of mountain snow stays in the forecast Friday through Monday as a deep upper low slowly moves east across Canada. This will help pull several disturbances through the region that will tap into a steady stream of Pacific moisture, bringing a healthy dose of snow to the Beartooths and Absarokas. Well over a foot is possible by Sunday. Cooke City could easily get over a foot as well.
Billings and areas west will have a chance of rain on Sunday afternoon before transitioning to all snow overnight into early Monday across most of the region. A blend of models shows lower elevations (including Billings) picking up less than 1" of snow,
Daytime highs will be mainly in the 40s through Sunday before cooling down into the 30s (maybe some 20s) on Monday through the middle of next week. Nighttime lows will be in the 20s and 30s through Sunday night then mainly 10s and 20s Tuesday and Wednesday nights.
-Miller Robson
Q2 Morning Meteorologist
miller.robson@ktvq.com
