BILLINGS — Light snow continued to fall in Billings Wednesday afternoon. The nice thing about the snow is that it's self-shoveling, melting as soon as it hits the pavement.
At 2 p.m. it was 27 degrees. Around the rest of the state, the temps were really warm out in western Montana, generally into the 40s. Back east to the Divide, we're talking generally teens and 20s to the 30s over at Miles City and Sheridan.
By now the Doppler radar shows you most of the snow we had Wednesday afternoon is tracking toward Miles City and into the northeastern corner the state.
However, we are expecting more snow to move in because the center of the storm, an upper-level low pressure cell, continues to pick up moisture from southern California's coast, sling it into the central Rocky Mountains region and eventually move into Wyoming, Idaho and Montana.
The high-resolution forecast model shows that first batch of snow continues to push its way in towards Billings and Miles City and places like that Wednesday afternoon.
A fresh batch of snow is expected to move in again Thursday morning and produce more isolated snow showers in the Billings area and stick around through Thursday evening.
By Friday morning, most of that snow kicks out of the way. Our temperatures will begin to warm up as we get ready for a much warmer weekend ahead.
The computer model suggests that most of the snow will be very light across all of eastern Montana.
Our temperatures warm up into the upper 20s to right around 30 degrees next hour, then roll back down to the 20s overnight, and into the low to mid 20s Thursday afternoon.
We will top out at 31 degrees on Thursday then work our way up to 51 on Saturday, roll back down to 48 Sunday and get into the low to mid 50s as we start up next week.
BILLINGS FORECAST
TONIGHT: Mostly cloudy with a slight chance for snow this evening, then a 60% chance for snow overnight. Accumulations of an inch or less are possible. Northeast winds 5 to 15 mph. Low 22 degrees.
THURSDAY: Mostly cloudy with a 60% chance for snow in the morning and more snow expected again in the afternoon. Accumulations of an inch or less are possible. Northeast winds 10 to 20 mph. High 31 degrees.
FRIDAY: Decreasing clouds and a little warmer. Southeast winds 5 to 10 mph. High 38 degrees.
