BILLINGS — Congratulations, you've made it to midweek. And in the Billings area, it looks like the rain and snow have started lift up and move out of the region.
One thing you can see is the trees are starting to show their true colors now. In Billings in the early afternoon, it's 39 degrees with mostly cloudy skies.
Around the rest of the state, the temps are mostly into the 30s and 40s although Cut Bank is reporting 22 degrees at 1 p.m.
The Doppler radar and satellite imagery shows most of the morning snow has changed to rain and continues to spin up into the northeast corner of the state and parts of North Dakota.
But we still have a Winter Weather Advisory until midnight for the southeast corner the state. There we could see one to three inches of snow in the higher hills and an inch or less in some of the lower valleys.
The high-resolution forecast model shows the rain and snow showers will continue to spin into the Dakotas and leave Billings with partly cloudy skies the rest of the night and under sunny skies on Thursday morning.
A new cold front starts moving into western Montana later Thursday and will eventually push its way to the Billings area.
The computer says we might see some light rain in Billings on Friday morning, but the big stuff will move in later in the day, probably sometime after 6 p.m.
Most of the heavier rain and snow will be around Helena, which is expecting a half an inch of precipitation. Billings will just see 0.02 inches of precipitation, probably coming down as rain.
Our temperatures for the rest of the weekwill eventually flirt with the upper 50s and 60s, and then eventually wind up at 72 degrees on Tuesday.
BILLINGS FORECAST
TONIGHT: Mostly clear and cool. Southwest winds 5 to 10 mph. Low 33 degrees.
THURSDAY: Mostly sunny and warmer. South winds 5 to 10 mph. High 59 degrees.
FRIDAY: Partly sunny with a 50% chance for rain showers in the afternoon and again that evening. West winds 10 to 20 mph. High 63 degrees.
