BILLINGS — Thankfully the wind was not as strong for Montana and Wyoming on Wednesday, but it was still fairly strong in our normally windy areas, and it did pick up in the afternoon for everyone else. We began the day with light snow, which warmed to light rain along with the wind, and the combination of clouds and wind will keep us fairly mild overnight.
The first half of Thursday will be fairly uneventful for our parts of Montana and Wyoming, but the wind will be blowing. In the afternoon a band of rain will push southward back toward us, but right on its heels will be very cold air. We can expect the rain to turn to snow in the afternoon, rapidly dropping temperatures and wet roads becoming icy. Be careful!
Much of our region will have Winter Weather Advisories and Winter Storm Warnings from Thursday through Saturday morning. Lower elevations of central and eastern Montana will have the potential for 4-9" of snow through this stormy period, but there will be areas which receive more snow than that. Not only will it snow, but it will be much colder, too.
After briefly being in the 50s the first half of Thursday, temperatures will drop rapidly into the 30s, 20s and 10s for most areas late Thursday and early Friday. Most highs will remain in the 10s with some lower 20s on Friday, and Saturday will still be mainly in the 20s with lingering snow showers. More gusty wind will push us back into the 40s and 50s next week.
