BILLINGS — It is hard to believe when you look outside Monday morning that we started the day with about an inch of light snow across Billings.
Since then the snow has melted, and the temperatures continue to stay right around freezing at 31 degrees in the early afternoon.
Around the rest of the state, we are pretty warm out in the west, where temps are already up into the 40s. Back east of the divide, we are looking at temps mainly in the 20s and 30s.
The Doppler radar and satellite imagery shows the light rain and snow across south-central Montana just south of Billings.
The rain is changing to snow as the elevation gets higher up in the Beartooth, Bighorn and Pryor mountains.
Our high-resolution forecast model shows those showers continue to move to the south.
A warm front moves in Tuesday morning and will bring us a chance for some rain showers early and then mostly sunny skies most of the afternoon on Tuesday.
That will be followed up by a cold front Tuesday night along with some snow following that cold front on into Wednesday morning.
By Wednesday afternoon, the sun returns and sticks around for Thursday. Billings is expecting 1 to 2 inches of light snow out of the system. Sheridan will see 2 to 4 inches, and Miles City will see 1 to 2 inches.
Temperatures will slowly work their way back up into the upper 40s by Tuesday afternoon. They will top out at 51 degrees that afternoon.
Then, our temps will take a drastic drop down to 28 degrees with a new cold front Wednesday morning, then bounce back up into the 50s by the end of the week.
BILLINGS FORECAST
TONIGHT: Mostly cloudy with a 20% chance for early evening snow showers. Southwest winds 10 to 20 mph. Low 32 degrees.
TUESDAY: Mostly sunny and warmer. West winds 10 to 20 mph. High 51 degrees.
WEDNESDAY: Mostly cloudy with snow likely in a morning, then snow again in the afternoon. Chance of snow is 60% and much colder. Northeast winds 5 to 15 mph. High 28 degrees.
