BILLINGS- Some dark clouds are already starting to make their way into the Billings area Thursday afternoon as we get ready for another round of rainfall and get this, even snow moving in the parts of the state.
Currently in Billings the temperatures have rolled back to 64 degrees with mostly cloudy skies.
Around the rest of the state are temps are only to the 40s and 50s out west 50s and 60s back in Eastern Montana. A severe thunderstorm warning has been issued for Big Horn County.
The combination of a surface low, an upper level low along with the jet stream all are combining to put enough energy into the atmosphere to cause any thunderstorms that develop to pop up pretty big and strong and possibly severe.
Plus, we have a winter weather advisory for most of the mountains of Western Montana.
Snowfall amounts range anywhere from one to three inches above the 6,000-foot level all the way up to 6 to 12 inches in some of the higher peaks.
The Doppler radar shows all the moisture from the Great Plains is wrapping around an upper level low that is pulling cold air from Canada.
It is all being mixed together, and we are getting rain in the valleys and snow in the higher elevations of northwest Montana.
Some of that snow will make it all we down to the Beartooths, Absarokas and Crazy Mountains.
A surface low continues to move into southeastern Montana tonight as it does so it’ll produce some heavy rainfall in and around the Billings area. This is where we have a chance of severe thunderstorms.
That low will track up into Canada on Saturday and take a little bit of the moisture along with it.
Our temperatures will continue to stick in the mid-60s this afternoon and then roll back down to the 40s in the morning back up to the low 60s about this time tomorrow afternoon.
After that will see our afternoon high temperatures slowly work their way back up into the low 80s by the middle part of next week.
BILLINGS FORECAST
TONIGHT: Mostly cloudy with thunderstorms likely. Some storms may be severe with damaging winds and large hail. Northwest winds 5 to 15 mph. Chance of rain is 90%. Low 45 degrees.
FRIDAY: Mostly cloudy with a 60% chance for rain in a morning then more rain in the afternoon with a chance of thunderstorms. West winds 10 to 20 mph high 63 degrees.
SATURDAY: Partly sunny with a 50% chance for rain in a morning and a slight chance for thunderstorms in the afternoon. West winds 10 to 20 mph. High 67 degrees.
