BILLINGS — It seems like the weather is the one gift that keeps on giving in Billings on Thursday- just take a look outside.
We have beautiful filtered sunshine, and temperatures are not too bad for this time year, mostly into the mid-30s.
At 1:30 p.m. Thursday, the temperature in Billings was 35 degrees, which is actually our average high for this time of year. We have a light southwest wind at 3 mph.
Around the rest of the state, we are mostly into the teens and 20s out west, but mostly 30s east of the divide, except for around the Glasgow and Glendive areas, where we are still in the 20s.
The Doppler radar and satellite imagery tells the story Thursday with generally dry skies from one side of Montana to the other.
All we have are a few mid-to-high level clouds around Kalispell, Billings and on the state line with Wyoming.
Even the high-resolution forecast model shows most of the snow stays down in the Beartooth and Bighorn mountains and up around Glacier National Park.
This means we have plenty of sunny skies the rest of Thursday in Montana. Then, on Friday, a new batch of snow starts making its way into the Crazy, Absaroka and Beartooth mountains.
We think the snow will be delayed coming into the Billings area until Saturday.
Even then it looks like it won't move into the Billings area until late morning or early afternoon. Our temperatures will get into the upper 30s Thursday then roll back down to the 20s in the morning and back to the mid-30s Friday afternoon.
Eventually we will top out at 39 degrees on Friday, then roll back into the mid-30s over the weekend and up to the mid-40s by the middle part of next week.
BILLINGS FORECAST
TONIGHT: Mostly clear and cool. Southwest winds 5 to 15 mph. Low 24 degrees.
FRIDAY: Mostly sunny and mild. Southwest winds 5 to 15 mph high 39 degrees.
SATURDAY: Mostly cloudy and a little cooler. West winds 5 to 15 mph. High 36 degrees.
