BILLINGS — It is a beautiful Friday in the Big Sky. In Billings in the early afternoon, we are seeing sunny skies and 52 degrees with a west wind at 23 mph gusting to 33 mph.
Around the rest of the state, look at all those 50s and a few places like a Jordan and Glasgow are actually in the 60s, although we're still little cooler in Missoula, Butte and Bozeman. Temps there are in the 40s.
The Doppler radar shows the story Friday, just partly cloudy skies across much of eastern Montana and a few clouds to the north.
The big story is up in southern Canada. That's where our next cold front is currently residing.
The high-resolution forecast model shows we will enjoy mostly sunny skies across southern Montana throughout the rest of Friday. However, later tonight, we could see a few clouds start to roll in overnight.
Then at 6:30 a.m. Saturday, that new cold front will start dropping down from Canada into Montana, bringing scattered rain and snow showers.
Then by later Saturday afternoon, that cold front will push its way into the Billings area, bringing scattered rain showers here.
It really won't be until Sunday morning when Billings sees the moisture meet up with the cooler air and we get snow showers.
However, the snow showers do kick out of the region later that morning and the sunshine returns on Sunday afternoon.
Snowfall amounts will not be too much, maybe 1 to 2 inches of snow on Sunday morning for Billings. Then the sun comes out and it should melt it quickly.
Our temps will continue to be comfortable this afternoon, up into the 50s through 6:30 p.m., then roll back down to the 30s in the morning and back to 48 degrees about 1:30 p.m. Saturday.
We will top out at 50 degrees on Saturday and 55 on Sunday, after the snow melts Sunday morning. Then it's up to the 60s and 70s as we go into next week.
BILLINGS FORECAST
TONIGHT: Mostly clear and mild. West winds 10 to 20 mph. Low 32 degrees.
SATURDAY: Mostly sunny in the morning and partly sunny skies in the afternoon with a 20% chance for showers. Southwest winds 5 to 15 mph the morning shifting to the North in the afternoon. High 50 degrees.
SUNDAY: Mostly cloudy with a 20% chance for rain and snow showers the morning then mostly sunny skies moving in that afternoon. Northeast winds 5 to 10 mph the morning shifting to the West in the afternoon. High 55 degrees.
