textproduct: Billings

KEY MESSAGES

- Mostly dry and very warm with periods of gusty winds along the western foothills through the weekend.

- Increased grass fire concerns across the area through the weekend, especially western and central zones.

- Pattern change to cooler weather expected for early next week. Lots of uncertainty remains.

UPDATE

Daily temperatures records were broken today at all of our main climate stations. A few of the warmest sites were: Horse Thief Raws (near Roundup) 74F, Hardin 73F, Sheridan 72F, Brandenberg 72F, Forsyth 70F. The Billings airport actually underachieved slightly, with a high of "only" 67F, due to a modifying flow out of the Bighorn Basin and down the Clarks Fork. Temps have cooled considerably since mid afternoon and with modest backdoor cooling and mostly clear skies, tonight will be chilly relative to how warm it was today. There is a low (20%) risk of fog late tonight and early Friday in an area along and east of a Miles City to Ekalaka line. Dew point spreads are still plenty high as of 730pm and HRRR has backed off some on fog, so have scaled back mention of patchy fog a bit. Friday will be dry and not as warm as today, with less wind, but still much warmer than normal. JKL

AVIATION

Strong high pressure aloft will continue to bring widespread VFR and mostly clear skies through Friday. There is a low (20%) risk of valley fog near KMLS, KBHK, and K97M late tonight (after 09z) into early Friday. Confidence is not high enough to add fog to the KMLS TAF, but this is something to monitor tonight. JKL

PRELIMINARY POINT TEMP/POPS

Fri Sat Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu ----------------------------------------------------------- BIL 033/059 041/066 039/063 043/053 029/046 026/046 026/049 00/U 00/B 00/B 14/W 32/J 22/J 11/U LVM 029/062 040/059 038/057 040/047 025/041 023/042 023/042 00/U 00/B 00/N 26/W 32/J 22/J 11/B HDN 029/060 035/066 032/065 038/055 029/047 024/046 024/050 00/U 00/B 00/B 14/W 42/W 23/W 21/U MLS 028/055 033/060 033/063 036/049 027/040 022/040 021/043 00/U 00/B 00/B 02/W 21/E 12/J 10/U 4BQ 029/059 035/060 034/064 034/054 029/043 025/043 022/046 00/U 00/B 00/B 02/W 21/E 22/J 11/U BHK 026/047 029/054 030/058 032/047 024/038 018/038 019/041 00/B 00/B 00/B 02/W 21/E 22/J 21/U SHR 028/061 035/061 031/063 032/053 024/041 020/043 019/045 00/U 00/B 00/B 03/W 43/J 33/J 22/J

BYZ WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

MT...None. WY...None.