BILLINGS — The rain and snow have come and gone, and the sun has come out and the temperatures are starting to rock.
That's the story in Billings Thursday afternoon. The early afternoon temperatures are already up to 52 degrees.
Around the rest of the state, the temps are mostly into the 30s and 40s, but Billings is the only one that's already up into the 50s.
The Doppler radar and satellite imagery tells the story. The rain and snow we had earlier this morning in south-central Montana has moved out of the state.
It was caught up in the jet stream and moved not only out of Montana, but also out of Wyoming and into Nebraska.
The high-resolution forecast model was predicting that. We expect to see mostly sunny skies the rest of the afternoon, clear skies Thursday night, and mostly sunny skies throughout most of Friday afternoon.
However, on Saturday, a new weather disturbance moves into northwestern Montana early in the day and will travel down the spine of the Rockies, just west of Billings on its way into western Wyoming.
The computer model suggests that most of the snow will stay around Bozeman, Livingston, Cody and Worland, while Billings, Miles City, Glendive and Glasgow will see no new measurable snow this weekend at all.
Our temps will continue to stay in the 50s the rest of Thursday afternoon then roll back down into the 30s in the morning and back to 50 degrees early Friday afternoon.
In fact, we will top out at 53 on Friday, 55 degrees on Saturday, then drop back down to the 40s during the early part of next week and stay there through Wednesday.
BILLINGS FORECAST
TONIGHT: Mostly clear and slightly cooler. West winds 10 to 20 mph. Low 29 degrees.
FRIDAY: Mostly sunny and warmer. Southwest winds 10 to 20 mph high 53 degrees.
SATURDAY: Partly sunny and warmer still. Southwest winds 10 to 20 mph. Look for a 30% chance for rain early in the evening changing the snow overnight Saturday night. High 55 degrees.
