BILLINGS — It has certainly turned out to be a beautiful Friday afternoon in Billings with a little hint of smoke in the air and 70 degrees early Friday afternoon. Our wind is northeast at 18 mph.
Around the rest of the state, our current temps are mostly to the 60s, but a few places are into the 70s already like Helena, Livingston, Billings and Sheridan.
Our smoke forecast shows smoke continues across much of western Montana and is now starting to move into the south-central part of the state.
On Saturday, the northwesterly flow of air will blow a lot of the smoke away but west of Billings will remain smoky.
On Sunday, the smoke in the west will push all the way across the state and Billings will be smoke-filled again.
As we head into early next week, that smoke will move away, and the air will become smokeless once more.
The big news Friday is Glendive and parts of Eastern Montana had a little light sprinkle of rain. But now that rain is moving into South Dakota.
Our high-resolution forecast model shows even that rainfall will move away from us and we will be left with mostly sunny skies for the rest of the afternoon through much of the weekend.
We will see nothing but sunny skies from one side of Montana to the other Saturday and Sunday.
It will be 68 degrees at 5:30 p.m. Friday, then we cool back down into the 40s in the morning and back up to 65 degrees by 1:30 p.m. Saturday.
We will top out at 70 on Saturday, then it's a roller coaster ride between 70s and low 80s through Thursday of next week.
BILLINGS FORECAST
TONIGHT: Partly cloudy and cool. North winds 5 to 10 mph. Low 43 degrees.
SATURDAY: Mostly sunny and slightly mild. West winds 5 to 10 mph the morning shifting to the North in the afternoon. High 70 degrees.
SUNDAY: Mostly sunny, windy and warmer. Southwest winds 5 to 15 mph the morning increasing to 15 to 25 mph in the afternoon. High 81 degrees.
