BILLINGS — Mountain snow, wind in the foothills, and pretty pleasant almost everywhere else.
Snow falling in the mountains Thursday and Friday will help protect the current snowpack despite warmer-than-average temperatures. At the same time, wind will highlight the weather in the foothill locations like Livingston/Nye and Big Timber where gusts will reach 40 to 50 mph.
Those foothills winds will keep showers from moving off the mountains and support warmer temperatures. Highs will be mainly 35 to 45 Thursday with the warmest reading near the mountains and trending cooler in northeast Montana.
With a series of disturbances moving through the area, a chance of mainly mountain snow and wind in the foothills continues off and on through early next week. Highs will stay above January average, reaching the 40s to low 50s over a wide area for highs through the weekend.
Billings forecast:
Thursday… Increasing clouds, and a high near 45. Westerly wind 5-15 mph.
Thursday night… Decreasing clouds overnight. About 32 for the low.
Friday… Mostly sunny and around 49 for the high. Westerly wind 10 to 20 mph.
