Dry thunderstorms moved through Petroleum, Garfield, Southern Phillips and Southern Valley counties during the evening of July 15th. The storms ignited several wildfires.
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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.
Dry thunderstorms moved through Petroleum, Garfield, Southern Phillips and Southern Valley counties during the evening of July 15th. The storms ignited several wildfires. Northwest winds of 20 to 30 mph with relative humidity around 15 percent allowed the fire to rapidly spread on July 16th and 18th. In Garfield and Petroleum Counties, the fires were called the Black Pulaski Complex. The Black Pulaski Complex included the following fires:Black Pulaski: 15,695 acresChalk Butte: 24,314 acresHill Coulee: 2,846 acresLodgepole: 16,617 acresLost Creek: 32,574 acresSoda Creek: 32,238 acresSquare Butte: 621 acresOne outbuilding was destroyed by the Black Pulaski Fire in Garfield County.The Flat Tire Complex included the Flat Tire Fire and Middle Eighth Fire in Valley County on the north shore of Fore Peck Lake. The Flat Tire fire burned 18,585 acres and the Middle Eighth Fire burned 140 acres. A fire in the UL Bend burned 1,500 acres in the UL Bend in Phillips County. Another fire in Valley County burned 14,000 acres along Larb Creek in Valley and Phillips Counties. The fire destroyed one home and one outbuilding.
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
4 wildfire. Local standard time, as filed.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Montana in 2006Every state in 2006This day in weather historyWarnings in Montana, July 2006
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 2026-10-01. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5526724, 5526725, 5526726, 5526727.