BILLINGS — On Friday afternoon in the Big Sky, we are looking at partly cloudy skies in the Billings area, and the temperature is pleasantly above average for this time of year.
At 1:30 p.m., the temperature was 68 degrees, in Billings, under partly cloudy sky.
Around the rest of the state, our temps east of the Divide were mostly into the 50s and 60s, and a few folks are getting very close to 70. Farther out west, we are seeing mostly 40s and 50s.
There's not much wind to talk about Friday, but we still have Flood Advisories for Bighorn and Sheridan counties of south-central Montana and north-central Wyoming.
There, snow melt into poor drainage areas is causing some minor flooding in some of the area’s small streams and rivers. We have a similar problem in Phillips and Valley counties up in the Hi-Line.
The Milk River, Beaver Creek and others are getting close to bank full and could flood soon.
The Doppler radar and satellite shows generally dry skies, but we do see the jet stream pushing some clouds from Sheridan to Glasgow, over to the East. Which means we could see some clearing skies in Billings Friday afternoon.
The high-resolution forecast model shows mostly sunny skies across most of Montana for the rest of Friday.
It won't be until Saturday when we see a new cold front move into northwestern Montana bringing more rain and snow showers.
We think some of that moisture could make its way to the Billings area about 10 p.m. Saturday. Plus, we could see a few scattered rain and snow flurries move into Billings Sunday morning.
Our temperature next hour will be cooling back down to 67 degrees, then dropping down to the 40s in the morning and back to 64 degrees about 1:30 p.m. Saturday.
In fact, the high temp on Saturday will top out at 65 degrees. Then as a cold front passes that night, we will wind up with a high on Sunday of 45 degrees. Then work our way back into the upper 50s by the middle part of next week.
BILLINGS FORECAST
TONIGHT: Turning cloudy but mild. Southwest winds 10 to 20 mph. Low 42 degrees.
SATURDAY: Partly cloudy and warming back up again. Southwest winds 10 to 20 mph. High 65 degrees.
SUNDAY: Mostly cloudy and cooler with a 40% chance for rain in the morning and rain again in the afternoon. Northeast winds 5 to 15 mph. High 45 degrees.
