A cold front moved through northeast Montana the evening of January 12 bringing high winds to the region. The peak wind gusts were 62 mph at Whitewater and at the King Coulee RAWS site.
Every event with a place to put it; 3 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS GGW wrote it up.
A cold front moved through northeast Montana the evening of January 12 bringing high winds to the region. The peak wind gusts were 62 mph at Whitewater and at the King Coulee RAWS site.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Glasgow, MT wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jan 12, 8:15 PM MST, 36 minutes earlier.
NORTHEAST MONTANA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GLASGOW MT
815 PM MST SAT JAN 12 2002
UPDATES PLANNED TO CORRECT WORDING BUT WILL KEEP WIND WARNING.
.SHORT TERM...RADAR REFLECTIVITIES SUGGEST PRECIPITATION BAND
ENTERING NORTHWEST ZONE IMMEDIATELY BEHIND SURFACE TROUGH...
CONSISTENT WITH EXPECTED PLACEMENT OF COLD FRONT. FURTHER UPSTREAM
...STRONG POST-FRONTAL PRESSURE RISES ACROSS ALBERTA AS SURFACE LOW
TRACKS SOUTHEAST ACROSS WESTERN SASKATCHEWAN. POST-FRONTAL WINDS NOT
AS STRONG AS EXPECTED ACROSS CANADA...BUT MESO-ETA 850MB WINDS HAVE
BEEN NICELY VERIFIED AT HIGHER LOCATIONS ACROSS WESTERN CWA.
MESO-ETA BRINGS 50KT 850MB WINDS ACROSS CWA FROM 9Z THROUGH
12Z...SUPPORTING CONTINUATION OF HIGH WIND WARNING TONIGHT INTO
EARLY SUNDAY. ADDITIONAL SUPPORT FOR WIND WARNING AS BAND OF
PRECIPITATION CROSSES AREA BEFORE MIDNIGHT...ALLOWING PRECIPITATION
FORM DRAG TO ENHANCE MIXING TO SURFACE. CURRENT MODEL FEATURES
MARGINAL FOR WIND WARNING BUT CANNOT BE IGNORED NOW THAT WARNING IN
EFFECT.
ELSE...UPPER TROUGH SWINGS EAST INTO DAKOTAS LATER SUNDAY CARRYING
BULK OF MOISTURE AND DYNAMIC SUPPORT EAST OF CWA...ALBEIT KEEPING
SOME SUPPORT FOR RAIN/SNOW MAINLY ACROSS EAST HALF OF CWA.
SUBSIDENCE ACROSS WEST HALF OF CWA APPEARS LIMIT POTENTIAL FOR
PRECIPITATION. WILL KEEP CURRENT PROBABILITIES WEST DURING SECOND
PERIOD BUT WILL LOOK AT THIS AGAIN WITH NEXT FORECAST PACKAGE.
FIRST AND SOME SECOND PERIOD CHANGES TO CURRENT ZONE PACKAGE WILL BE
TO ADJUST WORDING FOR IMPROVED CLARITY. DNS
.LONG TERM...NORTHWEST FLOW ALOFT CONTINUES INTO THE EXTENDED PERIOD
WITH A SERIES OF WEAK DISTURBANCES MOVING THROUGH THE AREA BEGINNING
ON THURSDAY. WILL KEEP LOW CHANCE POPS IN AS TIMING IS DIFFICULT IN
FAST NORTHWEST FLOW. A WEAK SHORTWAVE RIDGE BUILDS IN FROM THE WEST
DAYS 6-7 FOR A SLOW WARM-UP. WATERHOUSE
KGGW NEB 026/035 014/025 008/020 99332200
BEEE 008/020 008/020 010/022 012/024 9900333333
KGDV NEB 026/036 017/027 005/022 99332200
BEEE 007/022 010/022 012/022 014/025 9900333333
.GGW...HIGH WIND WARNING LATE TONIGHT AND SUNDAY ALL ZONES.The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
3 high wind. Local standard time, as filed.
62 mph wind gust at Whitewater.
46 mph wind sustained at Malta south DOT site.
62 mph wind gust at King Coulee RAWS.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Montana in 2002Every state in 2002This day in weather historyWarnings in Montana, January 2002
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5279792, 5279790, 5279791.