1 wildfire, as filed by the National Weather Service.
Every event with a place to put it; 1 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 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 Billings, MT wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Aug 18, 7:35 PM MST, 4 hours 25 minutes earlier.
SOUTH CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST MONTANA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BILLINGS MT
835 PM MDT MON AUG 18 2003
.SHORT TERM...VALID FOR TUE AND WED...
...UPDATE TO ZONES AND AFP...
UPPER LEVEL LOW CURRENTLY OVER SOUTHWEST NORTH DAKOTA AND SURFACE
LOW POSITIONED OVER SOUTH CENTRAL NORTH DAKOTA RESPONSIBLE FOR
TRIGGERING A CLUSTER OF THUNDERSTORMS ACROSS THAT AREA. STORMS ARE
WRAPPED WITHIN THE CIRCULATION OF THE LOWS WHICH IS RESULTING IN
WESTWARD MOVEMENT OF STORMS. AREA OF THUNDERSTORMS JUST ENTERING
NORTHEAST FALLON COUNTY EXPECTED TO MOVE WEST ACROSS FALLON COUNTY. WILL
INCREASE POPS TO CATEGORICAL ACROSS PORTIONS OF FALLON COUNTY FOR THE
REMAINDER OF THIS EVENING SINCE THUNDERSTORMS HAVE ENTERED BAKER.
THUNDERSTORMS ARE NOT EXPECTED TO MAKE IT WEST INTO ROSEBUD COUNTY AS
UPPER LEVEL LOW AND SURFACE LOW ARE EXPECTED TO REMAIN IN THE SAME
LOCATION THROUGH TUESDAY MORNING BEFORE MOVING EAST BY LATE TUESDAY
AFTERNOON. HAVE DECIDED TO REMOVE POPS WEST OF CUSTER AND POWDER RIVER
COUNTIES FOR TONIGHT. EFFECTS OF LOW WILL STILL LINGER ACROSS THE
EXTREME EASTERN BORDER THROUGH TUESDAY MORNING AND WILL CONTINUE WITH A
SLIGHT CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS ACROSS THOSE LOCATIONS. EVENING
TEMPERATURES ARE IN THE UPPER 70S TO LOWER 80S WITH OVERNIGHT LOWS
EXPECTED TO BE VERY SIMILAR TO LAST NIGHT WITH UPPER 50S TO LOWER 60S
ACROSS THE AREA.
UPPER LEVEL RIDGE BEGINS TO MOVE BACK OVER THE FORECAST AREA TUESDAY.
SURFACE FLOW WILL BECOME WESTERLY RESULTING IN AFTERNOON HIGHS A FEW
DEGREES WARMER THAN TODAY. UPPER LEVEL WAVE AND COLD FRONT STILL
EXPECTED TO MOVE THROUGH THE AREA WEDNESDAY MORNING ACROSS THE WEST AND
DURING THE EARLY AFTERNOON ACROSS THE EAST. WINDS ARE EXPECTED TO BECOME
NORTHWEST 20 TO 30 MPH WITH GUSTS NEAR 45 MPH ACROSS SOME LOCATIONS.
WILL CONTINUE WITH RED FLAG WARNING FOR ALL FIRE ZONES. UPDATE TO POPS
OUT SHORTLY. HOOLEY
.LONG TERM...VALID FOR THU...FRI...SAT...SUN...MON...
UPPER RIDGE PROGGED TO BUILD BACK INTO THE STATE THURSDAY AND FRIDAY.
THIS WILL ALLOW TEMPERATURES TO CREEP BACK UP TOWARD 90 DEGREES. MONSOON
MOISTURE SHOULD START TO MAKE A RETURN BY FRIDAY AFTERNOON INTO THE
MOUNTAINS. AM NOT SEEING SIGNIFICANT SHORTWAVE ENERGY TO POP CONVECTION
AND STRONGEST WAVES GETTING DEFLECTED NORTH. WILL LEAVE POPS OUT FOR
NOW. TEMPERATURES SHOULD WARM STEADILY AS THE RIDGE BUILDS BACK UP. WILL
UP TEMPERATURES FRIDAY TO REFLECT THAT TREND. SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES
SHOW UP IN THE EXTENDED MODELS FOR THE SATURDAY THROUGH MONDAY TIME
FRAME. THE GFS KEEPS THE RIDGE TO THE EAST AND SOUTHWEST FLOW ON TOP OF
THE FORECAST AREA SATURDAY AND SUNDAY...THEN PUSH A STRONG TROUGH
THROUGH MONDAY. THE ECMWF PUNCHES A TROUGH THROUGH ON SATURDAY AND
LEAVES BEHIND ZONAL. CAN SEE MERIT IN BOTH SOLUTIONS. BEST THING TO DO
IS LEAVE CURRENT FORECAST RUNNING AND SEE HOW THE MODELS RESOLVE THIS
THING IN TIME. HUMPHREY
TUE WED THU FRI SAT SUN MON
-----------------------------------------------------------
BIL 060/091 065/089 060/086 062/089 062/086 063/087 063/086
00/G 02/T 00/B 00/B 00/B 00/B 00/B
LVM 053/091 056/085 051/086 053/089 053/084 054/084 054/083
00/G 02/T 00/B 00/B 00/B 00/B 00/B
HDN 060/093 063/089 058/087 060/090 060/087 061/087 061/086
00/G 02/T 00/B 00/G 00/B 00/B 00/B
MLS 058/090 063/091 058/086 060/090 060/089 060/089 060/088
20/G 02/T 00/B 00/G 00/B 00/B 00/B
4BQ 059/092 062/090 057/090 059/093 059/089 060/089 060/088
20/G 02/T 00/G 00/G 00/B 00/B 00/B
BHK 058/089 061/090 056/085 058/088 058/085 059/085 059/084
+2/T 02/T 00/B 00/B 00/B 00/B 00/B
SHR 058/090 061/089 056/087 058/090 058/086 059/086 059/085
00/G 02/T 00/B 00/G 00/B 00/B 00/B
.BYZ...
MT...RED FLAG WARNING FOR WEDNESDAY FOR FIRE WEATHER ZONES 123 THROUGH
133.
WY...RED FLAG WARNING FOR WEDNESDAY FOR FIRE WEATHER ZONE 284.MTZ028>042-056>058-WYZ098-099-191100- HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BILLINGS MT 358 PM MDT MON AUG 18 2003 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR SOUTH CENTRAL...SOUTHEAST MONTANA AND NORTH CENTRAL WYOMING. .DAY ONE... NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. .DAY TWO THROUGH SEVEN... THE FIRE WEATHER WATCH HAS BEEN UPGRADED TO A RED FLAG WARNING FOR PORTIONS OF SOUTH CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST MONTANA...NORTHWESTERN SOUTH DAKOTA...AND NORTHERN WYOMING FOR WEDNESDAY. A FAST MOVING COLD FRONT IS EXPECTED TO MOVE ACROSS THE AREA ON WEDNESDAY PRODUCING STRONG WEST TO NORTHWEST WINDS. PLEASE REFER TO GTFRFWBYZ FOR FURTHER DETAILS. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... WEATHER SPOTTERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO REPORT SIGNIFICANT WEATHER CONDITIONS ACCORDING TO STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURES.
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 wildfire. Local standard time, as filed.
Little HawkCause: Lightning StrikeBegin Date: August 19, 2003End Date: August 26, 2003Acres Burned: 5000Structural Loss: 0
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Montana in 2003Every state in 2003This day in weather historyWarnings in Montana, August 2003
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: 5327781.