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 31, 7:06 PM MST, 4 hours 54 minutes earlier.
SOUTH CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST MONTANA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BILLINGS MT
806 PM MDT SUN AUG 31 2003
.SHORT TERM...VALID FOR MON AND TUE...
NO UPDATE TO ZFP OR AFP THIS EVENING. QUIET NIGHT IN STORE AS SYSTEM
THAT HAS SPREAD CLOUDS AND PRECIP ACROSS THE REGION CONTINUES TO PUSH
EAST. WILL UPDATE CLOUD GRIDS FOR CLEAR SKIES ACROSS ENTIRE AREA BY
LATE EVENING WITH CLOUDS DECREASING RAPIDLY ACROSS THE EAST. LOW
TEMPERATURE FORECAST LOOKS ON TRACK WITH TEMPS STILL IN 70S AND 80S
ACROSS AREA. WILL MAKE A FEW MINOR UPDATES TO WINDS TO REFLECT CURRENT
TRENDS. OVERALL CHANGES WILL NOT MAKE DIFFERENCE IN WORDING OF ZFP OR
FWF THUS NO UPDATES. MAIN FOCUS FOR NEXT 24 HOURS WILL BE ON COOL FRONT
PUSHING ACROSS AREA TOMORROW. FIRE WEATHER WATCH FOR INCREASING AND
SHIFTING WINDS...LOW HUMIDITIES...AND VERY HIGH FIRE DANGERS CONTINUES
TO LOOK ON TRACK. JZ
.LONG TERM...VALID FOR WED...THU...FRI...SAT...SUN...
EXTENDED FORECAST LOOKS TO BE IN PRETTY GOOD SHAPE. WEDNESDAY...UPPER
LEVEL RIDGE BUILDS BACK INTO AREA. 700 MB TEMPERATURES REBOUND TO
VALUES CLOSE TO MONDAYS FORECAST. THIS COVERED WELL IN CURRENT
FORECAST. THURSDAY...GFS IS BRINGING A WAVE ACROSS CENTRAL MONTANA.
LOOKS LIKE POSSIBLY SOME CONVECTIVE FEEDBACK WITH IT AND WILL HOLD OFF
ON INSERTING ANY POPS YET...AND LET MIDNIGHT SHIFT LOOK FOR ANOTHER
RUN OF CONSISTENCY WITH IT. BEYOND THIS SEE NO REASON TO ADJUST
ANYTHING IN EXTENDED. RASCH
MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT SUN
-----------------------------------------------------------
BIL 056/087 055/081 046/086 052/089 053/087 052/086 050/085
00/U 00/U 00/U 00/U 00/U 00/B 00/B
LVM 045/083 048/083 041/084 047/088 048/083 048/082 046/083
00/U 00/U 00/U 00/B 00/U 03/T 00/B
HDN 053/087 052/081 047/087 053/089 054/088 052/087 050/084
00/U 00/U 00/U 00/U 00/U 00/B 00/B
MLS 054/086 053/080 046/083 053/089 054/088 051/083 049/084
00/U 00/U 00/U 00/U 00/U 00/B 00/B
4BQ 055/087 054/081 047/084 054/090 055/085 052/083 050/082
00/U 00/U 00/U 00/G 00/U 00/B 00/B
BHK 054/085 052/078 045/082 052/088 053/085 049/082 047/080
00/U 00/B 00/U 00/U 00/U 00/U 00/B
SHR 052/086 050/081 046/085 053/090 054/084 051/083 049/080
00/U 00/U 00/U 00/G 00/U 00/B 00/B
.BYZ...
MT...NONE.
WY...NONE.MTZ028>042-056>058-WYZ098-099-011100- HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BILLINGS MT 210 PM MDT SUN AUG 31 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... A COLD FRONT WILL MOVE ACROSS SOUTHEAST MONTANA LATE MONDAY AFTERNOON...WITH A WIND SHIFT AND GUSTY WINDS POSSIBLE. LOW HUMIDITIES WILL ALSO BE PRESENT AHEAD OF THE COLD FRONT WITH CONTINUING VERY HIGH FIRE DANGERS. A FIRE WEATHER WATCH HAS BEEN ISSUED FOR PORTIONS OF SOUTHEAST MONTANA FOR MONDAY EVENING THROUGH TUESDAY MORNING. 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.
Cathedral PeakCause: Lightning StrikeBegin Date: August 16, 2003End Date: September 30, 2003Acres Burned: 3000Structural Loss: 1Cost: 250,000K
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, September 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: 5327783.