BILLINGS — It has turned out to be another beautiful Wednesday in Billings.
From Billings all the way to the Beartooth mountains, a distance of 70 miles, you can still see a little snow up on the top.
At 2 p.m. in Billings, it's 73 degrees with mostly sunny skies and a northeast wind at 7 mph.
Around the rest of the state, temperatures are mostly into the 50s, 60s and a few 70s everywhere you look, with most of the 70s back in the east.
Our thunderstorm outlook for Wednesday does show isolated thundershowers possible from western Montana all way across into the eastern edge of the state.
However, that can a take a while because the Doppler radar is showing scattered rain showers around Missoula and Kalispell, but nothing in the eastern edge of the state.
We do have a southwesterly flow of air in the jet stream. Should a storm get caught up in it, the rain could make its way to eastern Montana later Wednesday.
The high-resolution forecast model does show dry skies across south-central Montana throughout the afternoon and into the evening. In fact, it won't be until Thursday about 9:30 p.m. when we start to see showers move into the area.
After that, we could see more rain and snow showers moving in the south-central Montana by Friday morning. Most of the snow will stay up in the mountains with most of the rain remaining on the plains.
Our temperatures will probably stay in the 70s the rest of Wednesday and then cool back down to the 50s the morning.
Then it's back of the 73 degrees for the high on Thursday, we bottom out in the 60s on Friday and work our way back to the 70s again in the early part of next week.
BILLINGS FORECAST
TONIGHT: Mostly clear and mild. East winds 5 to 15 mph in the evening shifting to the North 5 to 10 mph overnight. Low 50 degrees.
THURSDAY: Mostly sunny and continued mild. There is a 60% chance for showers and thunderstorms in the evening. North winds 5 to 15 mph. High 73 degrees.
FRIDAY: Mostly cloudy with a 70% chance for rain showers likely in the morning and thunderstorms possible in the afternoon. Northwest winds 5 to 10 mph. High 62 degrees.
