1 wildfire, as filed by the National Weather Service.
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 5, 8:08 PM MST, 3 hours 52 minutes earlier.
SOUTH CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST MONTANA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BILLINGS MT
908 PM MDT TUE AUG 5 2003
.SHORT TERM...VALID FOR WED AND THU...
NO UPDATE TONIGHT. CLUSTER OF THUNDERSTORMS ASSOCIATED WITH A
WEAK SHORTWAVE WAS MOVING NE IN SW FLOW ALOFT THIS EVENING.
A FEW THUNDERSTORMS IN EASTERN PORTION OF CLUSTER WERE MOVING
THROUGH WESTERN ZONES. EXPECT SOME OF THE ACTIVITY TO DISSIPATE IN
NEXT HOUR OR SO DUE TO LOSS OF INSOLATION. CURRENT FORECAST OF 20 POPS
OVER THE W LOOKS GOOD. TEMPERATURES WERE RUNNING SEVERAL DEGREES
HIGHER THIS EVENING OVER CENTRAL AND W PORTION OF AREA THAN LAST EVENING
AT THIS TIME. FORECAST MINS WERE HIGHER THAN LAST NIGHT AND SEEMED
REASONABLE GIVEN SOME CLOUD COVER IN W AND EVENING TEMPERATURE
TRENDS. 00Z ETA CONTINUED TREND FROM PREVIOUS RUN OF BRINGING
SHORTWAVE INTO SW MT WED AFTERNOON. MODEL KEPT PRECIP NW OF FORECAST
AREA. EASTWARD EXTENT OF POPS MAY NEED TO BE TRIMMED BACK TOWARD THE W
FOR WED. WILL LET NEXT SHIFT FURTHER EVALUATE SITUATION. ARTHUR
.LONG TERM...VALID FOR FRI...SAT...SUN...MON...TUE...
TO DIVERGE ON BEHAVIOR OF UPPER FEATURES EARLY IN THE EXTENDED. GFS
BACKING OFF ON PROGRESSION OF RIDGE WESTWARD AND HOLDS SOUTHWEST
FLOW ACROSS AREA LONGER WITH STRONG UPPER LOW OFF TO WEST...WHILE
ECMWF SHOWING RIDGE AXIS ACROSS MONTANA BY THE WEEKEND. AM NOT TOO
CONFIDENT EITHER WAY CONSIDERING STRENGTH OF BOTH FEATURES AND WILL
GO MIDDLE OF THE ROAD AT THIS TIME. WILL THUS EXPAND POPS EASTWARD
SOME ON FRIDAY AND INTRODUCE POPS IN FAR WEST SATURDAY. DRY FORECAST
THROUGH REST OF EXTENDED LOOKS GOOD AT THIS TIME AS MODELS PROGGING
RIDGE TO RETROGRADE BY END OF THE WEEKEND. PATTERN SUPPORTING ABOVE
NORMAL TEMPERATURES THROUGH THE PERIOD AND HIGHS IN THE 90S LOOK
GOOD. NO EVIDENCE OF COOL FRONT IN LATEST MODELS SO WILL ADJUST
SATURDAY UPWARD WITH 700MB TEMPS SUPPORTING HIGHS WELL INTO THE 90S
IN ALL LOCATIONS. JZ
WED THU FRI SAT SUN MON TUE
-----------------------------------------------------------
BIL 064/096 069/096 069/096 067/094 067/093 065/094 065/092
23/T 30/G 20/G 00/G 00/G 00/G 00/G
LVM 054/094 059/093 056/092 056/090 057/088 057/090 057/088
23/T 32/T 22/T 23/T 00/U 00/G 00/U
HDN 064/098 067/098 067/098 065/095 065/095 063/095 063/093
03/T 30/G 20/G 00/G 00/G 00/G 00/G
MLS 066/094 068/098 068/096 065/093 066/095 064/095 064/093
00/G 22/T 00/G 00/G 00/G 00/G 00/G
4BQ 065/093 066/098 066/097 064/094 064/095 063/095 063/093
00/G 30/G 00/G 00/G 00/G 00/G 00/G
BHK 063/091 067/094 065/093 062/090 063/093 061/092 061/090
00/G 22/T 00/G 00/G 00/G 00/G 00/G
SHR 058/096 064/098 064/097 062/095 062/094 062/094 062/092
03/T 30/G 00/G 00/G 00/G 00/G 00/G
.BYZ...
MT...NONE.
WY...NONE.MTZ028>042-056>058-WYZ098-099-061045- HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BILLINGS MT 448 AM MDT TUE AUG 5 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. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN... NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME.
1 wildfire. Local standard time, as filed.
Hobble FireCause: Lightning StrikeBegin Date: August 6, 2003End Date: August 24, 2003Acres Burned: 40,000Structural Loss: 15Cost: 1M
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: 5327777.