BILLINGS — It is another beautiful sunny afternoon in Billings. At 2 p.m. Tuesday, the temperatures were already into the upper 40s and expected to go higher.
Around the rest of the state, our temps are mostly into the 20s and 30s in the southwest, 40s in the northwest, and teens, 20s and 30s across the Hi-Line.
We had mostly upper 40s in south-central Montana. Cody and Worland both had 48 degrees.
The Doppler radar and satellite imagery shows of band clouds roll in the north and a band of clouds with rain and snow mixed moving in from the southwest.
The two cloud bands are forecast to track right into the Billings area later Tuesday evening.
The high-resolution forecast model shows the band of clouds to the north is a cold front that should push all the way down into the state line with Wyoming by 6 p.m.
The clouds in the southwest is a fresh batch of moisture moving in from California.
That should bring about some snow showers to the mountains and rain down in the valleys. This is where Billings gets its chance of rain Tuesday evening.
The computer says the rain will change over to snow in the morning as temperatures get cold enough, and those snow showers are expected to stick around throughout Wednesday and into Thursday morning.
However, the computer also says snow amounts are expected remain light with 1 to 2 inches in Livingston and flurries everywhere else.
We will get up into the 50s next hour, then roll back down to the 20s in the morning and back to low 29 degrees at about 1:30 p.m. Wednesday.
We will top out at 35 on Wednesday, then down the 29 degrees for high on Thursday, 35 on Friday and then jump into the 50s over the weekend.
BILLINGS FORECAST
TONIGHT: Mostly cloudy with a 30% chance for evening rain and snow showers, then a slight chance for freezing rain and snow overnight. Northeast winds 5 to 10 mph. Low 24 degrees.
WEDNESDAY: Mostly cloudy with a 30% chance for snow and freezing rain in the morning then a chance for snow late in the morning and the afternoon. Northeast winds 5 to 15 mph. High 35 degrees.
THURSDAY: Mostly cloudy and colder with a 30% chance for snow in the morning and then again in the afternoon. Northeast winds 5 to 15 mph. High 29 degrees.
