BILLINGS — A beautiful Thursday afternoon has greeted Billings. The sky is blue, and the temperature is fairly comfortable for this time year at 55 degrees in the early afternoon.
Around the rest of the state, temperatures are mostly into the 40s and 50s, although it is a little cooler at Cut Bank and Havre, where we still have a little bit of snow on the ground, acting like a refrigerator.
The Doppler radar and satellite imagery shows scattered rain showers moving into northwest and west-central Montana.
Around Billings, the jet stream shows us where the edge of the high pressure cell that affects our weather.
So far there are no minor weather disturbances caught up in the jet stream, so we anticipate mostly sunny skies for the rest of the day.
The high-resolution forecast model shows mostly scattered rain showers moving into western Montana throughout the rest of the afternoon and possibly putting light rain and snow into the southwestern corner the state on Friday morning.
The computer says we'll probably see rain move into the Billings area about 4 p.m. Friday with heavier rain moving through by 7 p.m.
Mostly sunny skies are expected Saturday morning with most of the rain and snow to stay out in the western part of the state through Saturday afternoon.
The computer estimates of rainfall show Billings to pick up 0.15 inches on Friday night and about two-thirds of an inch at Livingston, nearly half an inch at Bozeman and about a quarter inch at Miles City.
Our temperatures for the rest of the week will be more fall-like than winter-like with mostly 50s and 60s then topping out at 71 degrees on Tuesday.
BILLINGS FORECAST
TONIGHT: Partly cloudy and cool. East winds 5 to 10 mph in the evening shifting to the Northwest overnight. Low 36 degrees.
FRIDAY: Mostly sunny and a morning then mostly cloudy with a 50% chance for rain showers in the afternoon and evening. West winds 5 to 15 mph. High 60 degrees.
SATURDAY: Increasing clouds and a little bit cooler and breezy. West winds 15 to 25 mph. High 57 degrees.
