BILLINGS — On the Pryor Mountains, just south of Billings, a little bit is snow is up on top, but otherwise we are enjoying a mostly sunny day with temperatures soaring up into the 70s.
Early Wednesday afternoon, it was 74 degrees in Billings, and around the rest of the state temps are mostly into the 60s out in the far West but look at all the 70s back east. Can the 80s be far behind?
I think the answer is, yes, we could top out at 80 degrees Wednesday. If we do, it will be the first time this year we hit 80 degrees. Last time we were that warm was Sept. 16, 2019.
The Doppler radar tells the story. It's a big ridge of high pressure over most of southern Montana, taking most of the showers up in the northwest corner of the state and sending them up into Canada.
The high-resolution forecast model shows will see mostly sunny skies across much of Montana Wednesday. We could see a few clouds and showers moving into western Montana around 6 p.m.
However, on Thursday morning, more bands of showers will move into southwestern Montana. Those showers move into Billings about 7 p.m. and produce some heavier storms then.
Eventually those storms will move away and all we will have left on Friday is a few scattered showers across the state line with Wyoming.
Our temps will stay into the 70s the rest of the day, cool back down to the 50s in the morning and back up to 73 degrees about 1:30 p.m. Thursday.
We will eventually top out at 77 on Thursday, then roll it back into the upper 60s on Friday and Saturday, 74 on Sunday, then back to the upper 50s and low 60s as we start out next week.
BILLINGS FORECAST
TONIGHT: Partly cloudy and warm. South winds 5 to 15 mph low 55 degrees.
THURSDAY: Mostly cloudy with a 50% chance for rain in a morning. Then a chance for more rain and thunderstorms in the afternoon. Southwest winds 5 to 15 mph. High 77 degrees.
FRIDAY: Mostly sunny and cooler, with a 20% chance for rain in the afternoon. Northwest winds 5 to 15 mph. High 68 degrees.
