BILLINGS — Mostly sunny skies, only to be filtered by a thin layer of smoke and haze is what we see in Billings Thursday. Our current temperature is 61 degrees in the early afternoon with a southeast breeze at 3 mph.
Around the rest of the state, temps were mostly into the 50s and 60s in the afternoon, but Livingston rose to 72.
Our smoke forecast shows that more smoke is starting to turn the corner in Washington and Oregon and start moving into western Montana.
We think the smoke will only get thicker in the Billings area as the day goes on. Even by Friday morning, it'll still be smoky in south-central Montana. By Saturday night, we look for the smoke to start moving away.
More smoke will move in by Sunday night and stick around for Monday morning. The Doppler radar shows rain is in southern Canada and clouds in central and northern Montana.
We believe the rain will stay up in Canada.
The high-resolution forecast model shows cloudy skies will continue to push farther south into south-central Montana later Thursday night and then out of the state by Friday morning.
We expect mostly sunny skies throughout the day on Friday and into Saturday.
We will be 69 degrees at 5:30 p.m. Thursday. Then we cool down to 48 degrees in the morning and back up to 67 degrees by 1 p.m. Friday.
We will top out at 72 on Friday, then back to 67 on Saturday, back up to the upper 70s Sunday through Wednesday of next week.
BILLINGS FORECAST
TONIGHT: Mostly cloudy and cooler. Northeast winds 5 to 10 miles per on the evening shifting to the west overnight. Low 46 degrees.
FRIDAY: Mostly sunny and a little bit warmer. West winds 5 to 15 mph the morning shifting to the north in the afternoon. High 72 degrees.
SATURDAY: Mostly sunny and a little bit cooler. West winds 5 to 15 mph the morning shifting to the northeast in the afternoon. High 67 degrees.
