A cold front combined with a strong upper level disturbance brought high winds to parts of northeast Montana. The peak wind speed was 73 mph at Whitewater.
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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 combined with a strong upper level disturbance brought high winds to parts of northeast Montana. The peak wind speed was 73 mph at Whitewater. Other high wind reports included 19 miles northwest of Vida 70 mph, King Coulee and Glasgow 67 mph, Bluff Creek RAWS 63 mph, Glendive 61 mph, Manning Corral RAWS 60 mph, South Sawmill RAWS and Big Sheep RAWS 59 mph, and Malta 58 mph.
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 3, 9:05 AM MST, 3 hours 40 minutes earlier.
NORTHEAST MONTANA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GLASGOW MT
905 AM MST FRI JAN 3 2003
.SHORT TERM...FRI...SAT...SUN...
SPILLAGE OF HIGH CLOUDS INTO THE AREA FROM THE WEST IN ADVANCE OF
THE NEXT SHORTWAVE LATER TODAY AND THIS EVENING. MORNING SOUNDING
HERE AT GLASGOW INDICATING A DRY ATMOSPHERE UNTIL YOU GET UP AROUND
THE CIRRUS LEVEL. WILL TAKE A LOT OF MOISTENING BEFORE SHOWERS COULD
BE SQUEEZED OUT HERE. HOWEVER...PROFILE COULD BE A LITTLE WETTER
FARTHER NORTH AND NORTHEAST...AND WITH BEST LIFT EXPECTED TO BE
NORTH OF THE MISSOURI RIVER...WILL LET THE 20 POPS IN THE FORECAST
RIDE. OTHERWISE AN UNSEASONABLY MILD DAY IN STORE WITH WEST WIND IN
THE 10 TO 20 MPH NEIGHBORHOOD. ALL IN ALL FEEL THAT CURRENT FORECAST
HANDLING THINGS VERY WELL AND FEEL AN UPDATE NOT NECESSARY. VALONE
THE NEXT IN OUR SERIES OF SHORT WAVE APPROACHES SATURDAY AND THIS
ONE LOOKS TO BE FURTHER SOUTH THAN THE PREVIOUS TWO. LIKE THE
PREVIOUS COUPLE OF SHORT WAVES IT DOES NOT HAVE MUCH MOISTURE TO
WORK WITH AND WILL HANDLE IT WITH SLIGHT CHANCES OF PRECIP SATURDAY
AFTERNOON AND EVENING. TEMPERATURE PROFILES LOOK WARM ENOUGH THAT
ANY SHOWERS WOULD LIKELY TAKE THE FORM OF RAIN DURING THE DAY...AND
RAIN/SNOW SATURDAY EVENING. TEMPERATURES SATURDAY WILL BE A BIT
COOLER THAN FRIDAY...ESPECIALLY ACROSS OUR EASTERN ZONES...BUT STILL
WELL ABOVE NORMAL. THE 500H RIDGE STRENGTHENS IN THE WESTERN U.S.
SUNDAY WITH A SFC TROUGH ACROSS EASTERN MT. AVN IS A BIT STRONGER
WITH THE SFC FEATURE AND ATTEMPTS TO GENERATE SOME PRECIP. AT THIS
POINT WILL KEEP IT DRY AND CONTINUED MILD.
.LONG TERM...MON...TUE...WED...THU...
500H RIDGE HOLDS FIRM MONDAY INTO TUESDAY IN THE WESTERN U.S. WITH
UNUSUALLY HIGH 500H HEIGHTS WORKING INTO THE SW US. THIS SHOULD
LEAVE OUR CWA HIGH AND DRY AND QUITE WARM FOR EARLY JANUARY. BIG
CHANGES IN STORE COME THE MIDDLE OF WEEK WITH THE PASSAGE OF AN
ARCTIC FRONT. THE AIR MASS TO INVADE THE AREA HAS ITS ORIGINS IN
CENTRAL ALASKA WHERE TEMPERATURES HAVE BEEN 40-50 BELOW. THE AIRMASS
WILL MODERATE...BUT COULD BE OUR COLDEST OUTBREAK SO FAR THIS
WINTER. THERE IS STILL UNCERTAINTY AS TO THE TIMING OF THE COLD
FRONT...AND IT LOOKS LIKE THERE MAY BE A COUPLE FRONTS/WAVES OF COLD
AIR TO PUSH INTO MT LATE TUESDAY NIGHT THROUGH WEDNESDAY EVENING.
GIVEN THE TIMING DIFFERENCES PREFER TO HOLD THE COURSE AND MENTION
CLOUDS BUT KEEP IT DRY...ESPECIALLY IN LIGHT OF HOW DRY IT HAS BEEN
DURING THE LAST COUPLE OF MONTHS. THERE IS STILL PLENTY OF TIME TO
FINE TUNE AND ADD MENTION OF SNOW SHOWERS OR A PERIOD OF SNOW WHEN
WE GET CLOSER TO THE EVENT. IN ANY CASE TEMPERATURES WEDNESDAY WILL
BE HIGHLY DEPENDENT ON WHEN THE FRONT(S) COME THROUGH AND WILL NOT
MAKE ANY CHANGES TO INHERITED FORECAST WITH 20S NORTH AND 30S SOUTH.
THURSDAY LOOKS TO BE COLD WITH STRONG NW FLOW AND WILL GO WITH HIGHS
IN THE TEENS...ALTHOUGH IT COULD TURN OUT TO BE EVEN COLDER WITH SUB
ZERO HIGHS ALONG THE INTERNATIONAL BORDER DEPENDING ON HOW MUCH THE
AIRMASS MODIFIES AS IT MOVES INTO MT. IN ADDITION GUSTY WINDS
WILL PRODUCE WIND CHILLS WELL BELOW ZERO ADDING AN ADDITIONAL BITE
TO AIR. ONCE THE COLD AIR ARRIVES IT MAY STICK AROUND FOR SOME TIME
AS A STRONG RIDGE BUILDS INTO EASTERN AK AND THE NW TERRITORIES. CB
KGGW EEE /044 026/042 023/043 9222221
BBCE 020/044 022/045 017/028 002/013 9200000000
KGDV EEE /045 027/043 023/046 9211221
BBCE 018/044 023/048 023/032 003/017 9200000000
.GGW...NONEMTZ016>027-059>062-041300- HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GLASGOW MT 602 AM MST FRI JAN 3 2003 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR NORTHEAST MONTANA .DAY ONE... NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN... NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME.
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
9 high wind. Local standard time, as filed.
60 mph wind gust at Manning Corral Dogtown RAWS.
73 mph wind gust at Whitewater.
63 mph wind gust at Bluff Creek RAWS.
67 mph wind gust at King Coulee and Glasgow Airport.
70 mph wind gust 19 miles northwest of Vida.
59 mph wind gust at South Sawmill RAWS.
61 mph wind gust at Glendive Airport.
59 mph wind gust at Big Sheep RAWS.
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, January 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: 5339583, 5339584, 5339585, 5339589, 5339586, 5339684, 5339587, 5339590, 5339588.