BILLINGS — The huge upper level trough on the West Coast Monday has now moved over the central and northern Rockies on Tuesday. That means it continues to send wave after wave of showers toward Billings and the northern Rockies.
So far Billings has measured 0.08 inches of rainfall out of this system. The temperature in the early afternoon was already 60 degrees in Billings, with light rainfall in the area.
Around the rest of the state, it's a little chilly out west with temps into the 40s, 50s and a few 60s. Back in the east, we are seeing temps into the 80s at Glendive and Miles City.
Those cities had a warm front earlier this morning, but a new cold front will move through later Tuesday and begin to cool them down.
Our thunderstorm outlook for Tuesday shows isolated thundershowers possible in south-central Montana on the web to the Northeast corner the state. Plus we have a marginal risk of severe thunderstorms in the Southeast corner of Montana.
The Doppler radar show you what's happening. The jet stream continues to track from south to north out of Wyoming, caught up in that jet stream are several waves of moisture.
This guarantees we'll be in and out of the rain showers for most of the afternoon. In fact, that's what the high-rResolution forecast model shows. We're even expecting the rain to hang around through 6:30 p.m.
Eventually, however, though showers of continue to pull out of the state. High pressure will move in on Wednesday and clear out the skies and start warming temperatures up.
Your next band of showers will move in on Thursday afternoon and eventually get into the Billings area by Thursday night.
Our temperatures Tuesday will stay kind of cool, mostly in the 60s and drop down into the 50s in the morning and get back into the 70s on Wednesday afternoon.
The high temps will roll back down to the 60s on Friday and Saturday and get back into the low 70s, at the beginning of next week.
BILLINGS FORECAST
TONIGHT: Partly cloudy early with a 20% chance for showers and thunderstorms. Then clearing skies late and colder. West winds 15 to 25 mph in the evening decreasing to 5 to 15 mph overnight. Low 47 degrees.
WEDNESDAY: Mostly sunny, dry and warmer. South winds 5 to 15 mph. High 77 degrees.
THURSDAY: Mostly sunny and mild with an 80% chance for rain in the evening.. Northwest winds 5 to 10 mph. High 72 degrees.
