The Missouri Breaks Complex Fires started on July 16th due to lightning strikes. The complex of fires included four fires in Eastern Garfield County.
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 episode as NWS GGW wrote it up.
The Missouri Breaks Complex Fires started on July 16th due to lightning strikes. The complex of fires included four fires in Eastern Garfield County. The four fires included the Germain, Ghost Coulee, Big Coulee and Indian fires and was classified as a type two incident. The complex was approximately 35 miles west of Jordan in Garfield County. The fires threatened 50 residences and 150 outbuildings. The complex was difficult to contain due to the terrain in coulees and tree filled gorges that made fire fighting and fire suppression both dangerous and difficult. The fire made it's largest run on the 19th due to a combination of high temperatures and low relative humidity. The Curry Coulee RAWS site had a high temperature of 103F and relative humidity of 7 percent on the afternoon of the 19th. In fact, the temperature at the Curry Coulee raws site jumped to 113F during the afternoon of the 19th as the fire passed over the recording equipment. The weather was unusually hot and dry from the 16th through the 24th with daily highs in the upper 90s to around 105F and relative humidity values frequently dropped into the single digits during the afternoon. In addition to the heat and dry conditions, strong winds helped to rapidly spread the fire on the 19th when wind gust of 40 to 45 mph were reported during the afternoon. Relative humidity recovery was poor at night with relative humidity values remained between 25 and 30 percent. The fire were declared under control at 5:50 pm on July 27th after burning 130,927 acres. A total of 8 structures were destoyed and one was damaged. The fire destroyed 610 miles of barb wired fence . This was the largest fire at that point and time in the United States.
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 Jul 16, 7:45 PM MST, 2 hours 15 minutes earlier.
NORTHEAST MONTANA FORECAST DISCUSSION...
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GLASGOW MT
845 PM MDT WED JUL 16 2003
.SHORT TERM...WEDNESDAY NIGHT THROUGH FRIDAY...
ONGOING STORMS OVER THE SOUTHWEST QUAD OF THE CWA...WITH BLOWOFF
CLOUDS NOW COVERING MUCH OF CENTRAL AND NORTHEASTERN SECTIONS.
LATEST MSAS ANALYSIS SUITE AND EVENING GGW SOUNDING NOT DEPICTING A
VERY FAVORABLE STORM ENVIRONMENT FOR THESE CURRENT STORMS AS THEY
MOVE FARTHER NORTH AND EAST. THUS WILL MAINTAIN CHANCE POPS FOR THE
REMAINDER OF THE EVENING WHERE THEY ARE AND ARE EXPECTED TO GO IN
THE NEXT FEW HOURS...THEN LOWER POPS TO THE SLIGHT CHANCE CATEGORY
FOR THE REST OF THE OVERNIGHT AND EARLY THURSDAY AS EVENING MODEL
RUNS NOT INDICATING VERY FAVORABLE LIFT. WILL DROP THE RED FLAG
WARNING AT 9 PM AS WIND HAS DROPPED OFF CONSIDERABLY...TEMPERATURES
HAVE LOWERED...AND STORM COVERAGE NOT GREAT. WITH LESS MIXING SHOULD
START TO SEE DEWPOINTS RISE WITH THE EASTERLY WIND...THUS ALLOWING
FOR AT LEAST FAIR RH RECOVERY. OTHERWISE HAVE ONLY MADE SLIGHT
ADJUSTMENTS TO CURRENT FORECAST. VALONE
UPPER LEVEL RIDGE WILL MOVES INTO NORTH DAKOTA TONIGHT AND THIS WILL
BRING SOUTHWEST FLOW AT UPPER LEVELS INTO NORTHEAST MONTANA. THE
SOUTHWEST UPPER LEVEL FLOW WILL CONTINUE UNTIL FRIDAY WHEN THE FLOW
BECOMES MUCH MORE ZONAL. THE ZONAL FLOW IS A RESULT OF A
STRENGTHENING UPPER LEVEL HIGH WELL SOUTH OF MONTANA. ALL THE MODELS
ARE IN GENERAL AGREEMENT WITH THIS PATTERN. TLSJR
.LONG TERM...FRI NIGHT THRU MON...
LARGE AND STRONG 500 MB HIGH CONTINUING TO BE THE MAIN
INFLUENCE...HEIGHTS PEAKING AT 600 DM OVER FOUR CORNERS. THERE ARE
SOME MODEL DIFFERENCES THROUGH. GFS AND ECMWF REPOSITION THE UPPER
HIGH FURTHER WEST AND RIDGE IT NORTH INTO BC. THIS FOLLOWS THE NEXT
SHORTWAVE FROM THE PACIFIC THAT MOVES OVER TOP OF HIGH AND BRUSHES
OUR EASTERN ZONES WITH A CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS SAT EVE. UKMET AND
CMC ARE MORE CONSERVATIVE WITH LESS THREAT FROM SHORTWAVE...AND
LITTLE CHANGE IN UPPER HIGH. GFS ALSO SHOWING CANADIAN SURFACE HIGH
FOR SIGNIFICANT COOING BEHIND SHORTWAVE. ONGOING FORECAST OF
GENERALLY WARMER AND DRIER THAN NORMAL WEATHER SEEMS MOST REALISTIC
AND REASONABLE CONSIDERING MODEL DIFFERENCES. REMAINS FROM CLAUDETTE
TO GET CAUGHT UP WITH OTHER MONSOONAL MOISTURE IN ANTICYCLONIC
CIRCULATION. IMPACT MINOR IN NE MT...CONVECTION OUTSIDE OF SAT NIGHT
LARGELY OROGRAPHIC GENERATED WHICH SHOULD MOSTLY MISS NE MT. SIMONSEN
GGW TUB 064/096 060/088 060/092 78333000
BBBB 057/087 057/088 056/094 056/090 8200000000
KGDV TUT 065/094 061/089 061/091 78333223
BBBB 057/086 056/086 056/095 056/091 8230000000
.GGW...NONE.MTZ016>027-059>062-171200- HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GLASGOW MT 215 PM MDT WED JUL 16 2003 .DAY ONE... A RED FLAG WARNING IS IN EFFECT FOR THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING. REFER TO GTFRFWGGW OR WWUS85 KGGW FOR FURTHER DETAILS. NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN... THE THREAT OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS EXISTS ON THURSDAY AFTERNOON AND EVENING. STRONG WINDS ARE POSSIBLE WITH ANY THUNDERSTORMS THAT DEVELOP. NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. LYNN
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GLASGOW MT
0918 PM MDT WED JUL 16 2003
TIME(MDT) .....CITY LOCATION.....STATE ...EVENT/REMARKS...
....COUNTY LOCATION....
0735 PM 17 NE WINNETT MT 0.75 IN HAIL
07/16/03 PETROLEUM
0840 PM 10 WNW SAND SPRINGS MT 0.75 IN HAIL
07/16/03 GARFIELD
0840 PM 10 WNW SAND SPRINGS MT 60 MPH TSTORM WIND
07/16/03 GARFIELD
BURLESONThe national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 wildfire. Local standard time, as filed.
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, July 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: 5330457.