Billings and other area towns smash heat records over weekend, humidity on the horizon

While the worst of the heat wave has passed, weather systems pushing in from Canada and the start of the monsoon season will likely make the start of this week both hot and humid for the Billings area. Highs for Monday and Tuesday will be around 100 degrees, according to the latest forecast from the National Weather Service, before dropping into the mid-90s later this week.

“It’s going to feel unusually sticky for Billings this week,” NWS Meteorologist Brian Tesar said Monday morning.

Last weekend, a massive swath of the Western United States and the Great Plains fell under what’s knows as a heat dome, a mass of high pressure that settles over an area. That pressure blots out the potential for precipitation, keeping the area beneath it consistently hot and dry through day and night cycles. The heat dome currently pushing eastward toward the Great Lakes is impacting nearly 100 million people in the U.S, according to reporting from the Associated Press. 

With temperatures in the area under the heat dome ranging from 15 to 25 degrees above normal, Billings joined dozens of other cities that hit triple digits over the weekend.

As of Monday morning, NWS had heat warnings in place that spanned the northern United States from Livingston to Detroit.

“It could be anywhere from about 98 to 103 across this area today and tomorrow,” Tesar said, “At least for Billings, we should see a little bit of a drop to the low-to-mid 90s Wednesday and Thursday. The caveat to that is, while temperatures are going to drop, we are going to see a lot more humidity. We’re expecting some unusually high dew points mid-week.”

Along with the rise in humidity, Tesar said, will be the potential for thunderstorms. NWS staff is currently monitoring conditions for the possibility of flooding, he said.

“We’re starting to switch gears into more of a heavy rain risk,” Tesar said, “but it’s still going to be quite hot. Instead of a dry heat, though, it’s going to be more of a humid week.”

Billings could use the water. So far this year, the NWS site at Billings Logan International Airport has measured 5.89 inches of precipitation, about three inches less than what the city normally receives by mid-July. The spring and winter were unusually dry for Billings, Tesar said.

“With just one or two thunderstorms though, we could catch up real quick,” he said, “but right now, we’re behind.”

As of July 9, all of Montana save for its northwestern corner was experiencing conditions ranging from abnormally dry to extreme drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.