textproduct: Billings

KEY MESSAGES

- Colder than normal temperatures through Monday morning; highs in the teens and 20s Sunday; lows in the single digits above to teens below zero regionwide tonight.

- Increased winds along the western foothills Monday night and Tuesday; localized blowing snow possible.

- Another system may bring rain and snow showers, Tuesday into Wednesday (moderate chance) with some snow accumulations.

UPDATE

Water vapor imagery shows a dry northerly flow over the region, with a weak shortwave dropping thru the Pac NW toward the great basin. In fact, we are already starting to see some high clouds eke into our far west as of 01z. We could see a few light snow showers/flurries over the Beartooth-Absarokas later tonight into early Sunday, but otherwise our cwa will remain dry. An area of stratus remains over Fallon County. As surface winds turn easterly, some broken stratus seems likely to persist near the Dakotas stateline for much (if not all) of the night. West of the stratus, high res models continue to show a risk of valley fog over mainly the east half of our forecast area. Something to watch. The other thing to monitor is temperature. A 1037mb surface high exists over northeast MT and where it is clear, temps are already plummeting. 6pm temps are -1F at Miles City, and -2F at Brandenberg and along the Bighorn River just north of Hardin. It is a chilly -10F just to our north in Jordan. All valleys in southeast MT will fall below zero tonight...the coldest night yet of the fall. The west will stay slightly moderated as cloud cover slowly increases. JKL

AVIATION

Area of low stratus w/ MVFR ceilings at KBHK will likely linger near the MT/Dakotas stateline thru much of the night. VFR will prevail otherwise over the next 24 hours, but there is a low risk (20% chance) of fog over southeast MT later tonight into Sunday morning. There is not enough confidence to place BR in a TAF, but the sites which could be impacted are KSHR & KMLS. Will monitor through the night. JKL

PRELIMINARY POINT TEMP/POPS

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat ----------------------------------------------------------- BIL 001/019 010/033 024/037 016/029 019/036 026/041 031/044 00/B 00/U 04/O 51/B 02/S 33/O 33/O LVM 004/027 011/037 025/037 017/034 019/039 025/044 030/045 00/B 00/B 25/S 41/B 02/S 33/O 34/O HDN 903/020 004/035 017/037 015/028 012/037 020/042 026/043 00/B 00/U 16/O 72/S 02/O 44/O 34/O MLS 906/017 004/027 016/035 010/020 011/035 022/039 024/038 00/U 00/U 13/O 40/E 01/B 43/O 43/O 4BQ 904/022 008/032 019/037 015/024 014/035 025/040 027/040 00/U 00/U 02/S 50/E 01/B 33/O 33/O BHK 910/017 000/025 011/035 005/019 007/034 018/036 020/035 00/U 00/U 02/S 30/E 01/E 32/S 43/S SHR 903/026 006/037 017/039 014/029 011/040 020/044 024/045 00/B 00/U 04/S 71/B 02/S 33/O 33/O

BYZ WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

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