BILLINGS — Partly cloudy skies are already starting to move into the Billings area, but the big news here Tuesday is that the temperatures are much warmer already in the early afternoon.
At 2 p.m., it was 36 degrees in Billings with a southwest wind at 29, gusting to 36 mph which gives us a wind chill factor of 23 degrees.
Around the rest of the state, our current temps are mostly to the 30s and 40s but it's 51 at Jordan. It’s a little cooler in Missoula, which is 27 degrees, and 24 at Cody, Wyoming.
We did set a couple of new record lows Monday night at Miles City and at Worland, Wyoming. Everyone else was a little warmer than the records.
Wind is still an issue across much of central Montana. We see winds gusting 36 to 38 mph in the central part of the state.
We still have a Winter Weather Advisory for Wheatland and Sweet Grass counties for blowing and drifting snow until 6 p.m. Tuesday. Plus, a High Wind Warning for the Rocky Mountain front for winds gusting to 65 mph, until midnight.
Right now, the Doppler radar shows most of the rain and snow showers remain in Canada or North Dakota. Meanwhile, in Billings and the rest of Montana, we are just looking at partly cloudy skies.
The high-resolution forecast model shows we will continue to see partly cloudy skies throughout the rest of Tuesday.
On Wednesday morning, we could see a few scattered snow flurries across the north-central part of the state. But outside of that, everyone else will be partly cloudy Wednesday and Thursday.
It will be 36 degrees at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, and we will cool back down the 31 in the morning and back up to 39 degrees by 12:30 p.m. Wednesday.
We will top out at 42 on Wednesday up to 51 degrees on Friday, back down the 46 on Saturday, Halloween, and then back to the mid-50s Sunday and Monday of next week.
BILLINGS FORECAST
TONIGHT: Partly cloudy, breezy and cool. Southwest winds 15 to 25 mph. Low 28 degrees.
WEDNESDAY: Mostly sunny and warmer. Southwest winds 5 to 15 mph. High 42 degrees.
THURSDAY: Mostly sunny and warmer still. Southwest winds 5 to 15 mph. High 47 degrees.
