BILLINGS — It is a beautiful blue sky with plenty of sunshine in Billings on Tuesday, and here's the best part: the temperatures are already warming up into the 50s.
Around the rest of the state, temps are mostly into the 40s and 50s, although it is a little bit cooler at Cut Bank and Butte. They are into the upper 30s.
The threat board is starting to fill up again. We start off close to Billings and, we have a Wind Advisory from 6 p.m. Tuesday until noon Wednesday for winds gusting to 60 mph and dangerous crosswinds on Interstate 90.
From there we have a Winter Weather Advisory on the Rocky Mountains front and the Flathead Valley from midnight until 11 a.m. Wednesday for 2 to 5 inches of snow above the 3,500-foot level.
And we still have Small Stream Flood Advisories for three counties of northeastern Montana: Phillips, Valley and Sheridan. Runoff from recent rapid snow melt is causing most of these rivers, creeks and streams to rise in that area.
Right now, the Doppler radar shows dry skies across most of Montana. We had a couple of scattered snowflakes tracking over the Crazy Mountains and some in the Little Belts. But even that has since died down.
The high-resolution forecast model shows a warm front sweeping across eastern Montana for the rest of the afternoon with mostly sunny skies. There is a threat, later Tuesday evening, for scattered snow showers developing in the Beartooth Mountains.
On Wednesday morning, you'll see mostly cloudy skies across the Billings area with scattered rain showers to the east and snow up in the northwest. Plus a new cold front will be dropping down from Canada.
This cold front will make its way into the Billings area by Wednesday evening. Producing scattered rain and snow showers across the southern part of the state.
Eventually by Thursday, a stronger cold front starts dropping down from Canada and will eventually bring another taste of winter as we head into the weekend.
Many people will be traveling for high school basketball this Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The second cold front will bring much colder temperatures and even a better chance of snow across much of Montana, as we head into the weekend.
Our high temp on Wednesday will be 58 degrees. It will drop back down to 43 on Thursday and Friday and then by the weekend you'll see afternoon highs only into the 20s on Sunday and Monday.
BILLINGS FORECAST
TONIGHT: Increasing clouds, and mild. Southwest winds 10 to 20 mph. Low 37 degrees.
WEDNESDAY: Mostly cloudy, with a 20% chance for rain in the afternoon. West winds 10 to 20 mph high 58 degrees.
THURSDAY: Partly sunny with a 20% chance for snow and colder. Northwest winds 5 to 15 mph. High 43 degrees.
