BILLINGS — It one looks like another typical summer day in Billings, but remember it's Dec. 9. It's 63 degrees early Wednesday afternoon in Billings with a west wind at 13 mph.
Around the rest of the state, we are into the 40s and 50s out in the west, 30s across the Hi-Line with a lot of 50s and 60s across eastern Montana. Sheridan, Jordan and Billings are all into the 60s Wednesday.
Part of the reason it's so warm here is we are looking at strong downsloping winds ranging from 20 to 26 mph in Livingston.
On the threat board, we have a Winter Weather Advisory for the Rocky Mountain front until 11 p.m. Wednesday we could see 1 inch of snow in the valleys, but 2 to 4 inches at past levels and all underneath a glaze of ice.
Right now, the Doppler radar shows a line of snow showers continue to pile up in southern Canada. However, we see the rain mixing with snow in west-central and northwestern Montana.
The high-resolution forecast model shows the snow north will continue to dissipate and eventually just slide away, leaving us with partly cloudy skies throughout most of Thursday.
However, by Friday afternoon, we expect to see another weather system moving in from the southwest producing snow in Yellowstone and Teton parks and all the way up toward the little Snowies out west.
The snow seems to dance around the Billings area and south-central Montana on Friday night and Saturday. This is why Billings only has a 20% chance for snow Friday night into Saturday morning.
It will be 50 degrees at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, then we cool it back down into the 30s overnight and back up to 37 degrees by 1:30 p.m. Thursday.
We will top out at 40 degrees on Thursday, then back to the mid-30s on Friday and Saturday up to 40 again on Sunday and back to the 30s on Monday and Tuesday.
BILLINGS FORECAST
TONIGHT: Mostly cloudy and cool. Northwest winds 10 to 20 mph. Low 29 degrees.
THURSDAY: Partly cloudy and colder. Southwest winds 5 to 10 mph the morning shifting to the east in the afternoon. High 40 degrees.
FRIDAY: Mostly cloudy and colder still. Northeast winds 5 to 15 mph. High 36 degrees.
