BILLINGS — Partly Cloudy skies greeted Billings on this Monday morning. At the moment, we have mostly cloudy skies over the Pryor mountains looking just to the south of Billings.
But in the early afternoon. Billings is Partly Cloudy and 63 degrees and the wind is out of the Southwest at 17, gusting to 24 mph.
Around the rest of the state our current temps are mostly in the 50s and 60s and in one place, Cut Bank, is at 72 degrees already.
Our smoke forecast shows generally smoke free skies across much of the Pacific Northwest, except for one fire and southeastern Washington.
We are expecting to remain smoke-free until about Thursday when fires on the West Coast will start tracking back North, turning the corner and coming into Billings.
We think a northwesterly flow of air will help blow that smoke away on Friday afternoon.
As for today, we are looking at a strong northerly flow of air from Canada, which has got a few high clouds caught up in it. This will leave Billings with partly cloudy skies throughout the rest of the day.
High pressure will be the main weather maker today, creating mostly sunny skies in between the clouds. That high will stick around through Tuesday, then start to retreat to the Southwest.
This allows a new cold front to drop down from Canada and push its way into Billings. It is pretty much a dry cold front. All we expect with it maybe a few clouds and a wind direction change.
It will be 70 degrees at 5:30 p.m., then cool back down to the 50s in the morning and back to 74 degrees about 1:30 p.m. Tuesday afternoon.
We will top out at 80 degrees on Tuesday, thanks to that high-pressure cell. Then we roll it back into the 60s on Wednesday and Thursday, 70s will finish out the work week on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
BILLINGS FORECAST
TONIGHT: Mostly clear and a little cool. West winds 10 to 20 mph. Low 48°.
TUESDAY: Mostly sunny and warmer. West winds 5 to 15 mph. High 80°.
WEDNESDAY: Mostly sunny and cooler. North winds 5 to 10 mph. High 68°.
