If it looks a little hazy out there on Tuesday, it might be because we have stagnant air mixing with smoke from western wildfires.
Plus, we are starting to fire up ourselves with temperatures in the low 90s in the early afternoon in Billings.
Around the rest of the state, temperatures are mostly to the 80s out west with generally 90s back in the East. Northern Wyoming is still mostly in the 80s.
The thunderstorm outlook for Tuesday shows isolated thunderstorms across southern Montana and again across the Hi-Line with a marginal risk of severe storms, mainly into the Dakotas and now into the northeast corner of Montana.
Our water vapor imagery map shows dry conditions across the Hi-Line, but we still have plenty of water vapor and moisture across southern Montana.
In fact, that’s why most of our showers and thunderstorms are starting to fire up there Tuesday afternoon, over the Beartooth and Absaroka mountains.
Unlike in the past, instead of the storms coming down off the mountains and heading for Billings, they are now arching over and heading straight for Sheridan.
So far, the showers are not too strong, mostly light to moderate rainfall.
In fact, that’s what our High-Resolution forecast model is showing Tuesday. We might see some spotty showers develop near Billings around 7 p.m. and then see a few more showers overnight.
After that, we're expecting mostly dry conditions through Thursday.
Temperatures are expected to get back into the low to mid 90s Tuesday afternoon, cool back down to the 60s overnight, and then get back up into the upper 70s and 80s Wednesday afternoon.
In fact, we do see cooler temperatures after Thursday. The temps will continue to roll back into the 80s, and by Monday of next week, possibly 81 degrees for a high.
BILLINGS FORECAST
TONIGHT: Partly cloudy and continued mild. Northeast winds 5 to 10 mph. Low 64 degrees.
WEDNESDAY: Mostly sunny and not as warm. Northeast winds 5 to 15 mph. High 88 degrees.
THURSDAY: Mostly sunny with a 20% chance for showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon. East winds 5 to 10 mph. High 93 degrees.
