BILLINGS — Partly cloudy skies and little bit of a wind continued to dominate our weather pattern in the Billings area on Wednesday. The early afternoon temperature was 41 degrees with a southwest wind at 16 mph.
Around the rest of the state, the temps are mostly to the 30s in the far west. But east to the Divide, the temps are already getting into the 40s across much of central Montana. However, we still are in the 30s in the northeast corner of the state by Glasgow and Glendive.
The Doppler radar shows a couple of areas where we have seen snow Tuesday.
They are east and west of the Billings area. The one out west will continue to get caught up in the jet stream and eventually push its way into Billings. The snow in the east will just move out of the state.
The high-resolution forecast model shows the storm in Missoula will eventually push its way to south-central Montana and bring Billings a chance for rain or rain mixing with snow around 9 p.m. Wednesday evening.
After that, the whole thing moves out of the region, and Billings will see mostly sunny skies in the morning. Plus that sunshine is expected stick around throughout most of the day on Thursday and again on Friday.
Snowfall amounts are expected to be fairly light for Billings, Miles City and Livingston, but we could see 1 to 2 inches of snow at Lewistown and Sheridan.
The temperature in Billings could get up into the mid-40s Tuesday afternoon, then roll back down into the low 30s in the morning and back to the mid-40s again Thursday afternoon.
In fact, we will top out at 48 degrees on Thursday, get into the 50s on Friday and Saturday and then back down into the 40s at the beginning part of next week.
BILLINGS FORECAST
TONIGHT: Decreasing clouds with a 40% chance for rain and snow this evening with the possibility of more snow overnight. West winds 10 to 20 mph. Low 28 degrees.
THURSDAY: Increasing clouds and increasing temperature. West winds 10 to 20 mph high 48 degrees.
FRIDAY: Mostly sunny and warmer still. Southwest winds 10 to 20 mph. High 53 degrees.
