BILLINGS — Once again, another beautiful day going for us in the Billings area. Under those mostly sunny skies, you can see all the way to the Beartooth Mountains.
Part of the reason is the gusty winds. They are blowing at 35 mph, blowing most of the smoke away. The temperature early Tuesday afternoon was 78 degrees in Billings.
Around the rest of the state, the temps were mostly into the 60s and 70s, but we did see 80 degrees at Jordan, and it won't be too long before more 80s start popping up around the state.
We do have a Red Flag Warning for much of eastern Montana around the mountains. It will last until 6 p.m. Wednesday in the Billings area, and back in the east it's until midnight Wednesday.
High winds, low humidity and warmer temperatures will cause erratic fire behavior and possibly even new fire starts in the warned area.
Right now, the Doppler radar shows dry skies across all of Montana, but we do see a pretty stiff northwesterly wind Tuesday. That's allowing sunny skies and warmer temperatures to move into the region.
We will keep the warm air throughout most of the day on Wednesday.
However, that night, a new cold front drops down from Canada and will eventually push into the Billings area by Thursday morning, cooling us off and taking the clouds along with it.
Our temps will cool back down to the 40s and 50s Tuesday night, with the threat of wildfire across much of eastern Montana.
On Wednesday, we are back to the 70s, 80s and even quite a few 90s across south-central and eastern Montana.
Tuesday night, the temperature will be at 81 degrees at 5:30 p.m., cooling back down to the low 60s in the morning and back up to 85 degrees by 1:30 p.m. Wednesday.
We will top out at 94 on Wednesday, roll back into the 80s on Thursday and Friday. Back to 90 on Saturday then down to the 70s as we start off next week.
BILLINGS FORECAST
TONIGHT: Mostly clear, windy and mild. West winds 15 to 25 mph. Low 54 degrees.
WEDNESDAY: Sunny, windy and hot. West winds 15 to 30 mph gusting to 45 mph in the afternoon. High 94 degrees.
THURSDAY: Sunny and not as warm. South winds 5 to 10 mph. High 83 degrees.
