BILLINGS — It was a cold front that took us from 90 degrees Thursday to the 60s Friday. Now, it looks like another weather system is starting to move into the region.
In the early afternoon, it was 64 degrees under mostly cloudy sky in Billings with a southwest wind at 6 mph.
The smoke forecast shows smoke hanging around south-central Montana Friday. It looks like a new fire start began east of Billings and was puffing out more smoke there.
Eventually, over the weekend most of the smoke will be blown away except for that one wildfire. Air quality in Montana and Wyoming is good to moderate Friday.
Around the rest of the state, our current temps are mostly to the 50s and 60s out west and central Montana, but we do see some 70s up in the northeastern corner of the state.
We have another Red Flag Warning for south-central and eastern Montana Saturday at noon until 9 p.m., high winds and low humidity could create erratic fire behavior and new fire starts.
The Doppler radar shows light rain moving in western Montana, but most of that stuff will fall apart before it gets to the Billings area, thanks to the downsloping winds off the mountains.
The high-resolution forecast model shows the next weather system blowing through the state Friday evening and producing more rain in snow showers in the mountains and pretty heavy rain showers east of Billings.
Some cooler air will continue to produce more rain and snow showers in the Beartooth and Crazy Mountains with rain in the foothills. Once again, all of that will continue to drop south and Billings will probably miss out on all that moisture.
It will be 71 degrees at 5:30 p.m. Friday and cooling back down into the 50s in the morning and back to 62 degrees at 1:30 p.m. Saturday.
We will top out at 68 on Saturday, 60 on Sunday, up to 76 degrees by Tuesday and then roll back into the 60s on Wednesday and Thursday.
BILLINGS FORECAST
TONIGHT: Mostly cloudy, breezy and mild. West winds 15 to 25 mph. Low 53 degrees.
SATURDAY: Mostly sunny, windy and mild. West winds 15 to 30 mph gusting to 50 mph. High 68 degrees.
SUNDAY: Partly sunny and breezy with a 20% chance for rain showers. Northwest winds 15 to 25 mph. High 60 degrees.
