BILLINGS – Welcome to round two of sunny skies in the afternoon, stormy is skies in the evening.
Just like yesterday, we had sunny skies all morning and then once the afternoon moved in, the scattered clouds started rolling in from the southwest.
The farther east the clouds go, the more instability they run into and warmer temperatures.
This takes any isolated showers and turns them into big storms, thanks to the warmer temperatures, which add more lift to the already buoyant air.
The thunderstorm outlook for today shows isolated showers developing to the west, and like yesterday, increasing in size and intensity the farther east they go.
However, once the Fourth of July gets here some dryer, warmer and more stable air moves into the region. That’ll put the kibosh on our afternoon thunderstorms.
The Doppler radar and satellite imagery shows showers already developing over the western mountains.
A few thunderstorms are moving into Cody and eventually to south-central Montana this evening.
The high resolution forecast shows the showers over the mountains will get much bigger and track north of Billings while the showers in Cody will track in toward Rosebud County.
Both the systems will be very much like Monday. It looks like Billings could see a line of showers moving in around 9 p.m. Tuesday.
However, once the Fourth of July gets here, a much warmer and stable air mass will move in and our thunderstorms will be a thing of the past.
BILLINGS FORECAST
Tonight: Increasing clouds with a 40 percent chance for showers and thunderstorms in the evening the chance for more rain overnight. Northwest winds 5 to 15 mph. Low 48 degrees.
Wednesday: Mostly sunny and continued mild. Southwest winds 5 to 10 mph the morning becoming easterly in the afternoon. High 78 degrees.
Thursday: Mostly sunny, dry and much warmer. East winds 5 to 10 mph. High 88 degrees.
