Low pressure system moving across the region triggered numerous showers and thunderstorms. One storm reached severe limits over southeast Toole county with marble to penny sized hail accumulating 4 inches deep.
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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 TFX wrote it up.
Low pressure system moving across the region triggered numerous showers and thunderstorms. One storm reached severe limits over southeast Toole county with marble to penny sized hail accumulating 4 inches deep.
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 Great Falls, MT wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at May 2, 1:58 PM MST, 1 hour 12 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREAT FALLS MT 258 PM MDT WED MAY 2 2007 .DISCUSSION... TONIGHT...STRONG SURFACE LOW OVER CENTRAL MONTANA WILL CONTINUE TO MOVE SLOWLY TO THE NORTHEAST. MAIN CONCERN TONIGHT WILL BE THUNDERSTORMS. A FEW OF THESE WILL HAVE VERY STRONG WINDS AND POSSIBLY SOME SMALL HAIL ASSOCIATED WITH THEM. AS THE COLD FRONT MOVES THROUGH THE AREA PRECIPITATION WILL BECOME MORE WIDESPREAD TONIGHT AND THURSDAY. SNOW LEVELS WILL FALL THROUGH THE NIGHT AND FRIDAY NIGHT. EXPECT SOME SNOW ABOVE 6000 FEET TONIGHT LOWERING TO AROUND 5000 FEET THURSDAY NIGHT AND EARLY FRIDAY MORNING. VALLEYS COULD SEE AN INCH OR TWO FRIDAY MORNING. TEMPERATURES WILL BE COOLER THURSDAY AND FRIDAY. UPPER LEVEL TROUGH TO FINALLY MOVE THROUGH ON FRIDAY WITH CLOUDS AND PRECIPITATION DECREASING THROUGH THE DAY. FRIDAY NIGHT THROUGH WEDNESDAY NIGHT...STILL LOOKS LIKE A RATHER UNSETTLED PERIOD. WE WILL BE DEALING WITH AN UPPER TROUGH OVER THE WESTERN U.S. AT LEAST THROUGH THE WEEKEND. MODELS ARE IN DISAGREEMENT ON JUST HOW FAST IT WILL MOVE EAST OF THE LOCAL FORECAST AREA. THINK THE GFS MODEL IS TOO FAST IN HAVING THE UPPER TROUGH EAST OF THE FORECAST AREA BY LATE SATURDAY. IN LINE WITH THIS HAVE RAISED SOME POPS AND HAVE AT LEAST SLIGHT CHANCE POPS THROUGH MONDAY. EXPECT SW FLOW ALOFT INTO THE MIDDLE PART OF NEXT WEEK. A TOUGH CALL AS THERE COULD BE ENOUGH LOW LEVEL DOWNSLOPE TO HELP KEEP THE PLAINS DRY BUT CONSIDERING THE TIME OF YEAR AND THE THREAT OF WEAK SHORTWAVES EMBEDDED IN THE SW FLOW WILL GO WITH SLIGHT CHANCE POPS FROM TUE NIGHT ON. BLANK && .AVIATION... UPDATED 1802Z. A MOIST AND UNSTABLE SOUTHWEST FLOW WILL CONTINUE THROUGH THE NEXT 24 HOURS. PARTLY TO MOSTLY SUNNY SKIES WILL BECOME MOSTLY CLOUDY AS CONVECTION INCREASES THIS AFTERNOON. SCATTERED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS WILL DEVELOP AFTER 21Z. LOCAL MVFR CONDITIONS WILL EXIST IN AND NEAR THUNDERSTORMS WHILE VFR CONDITIONS PREVAIL ELSEWHERE. THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECT TO DECREASE AFTER 03Z. WIDESPREAD RAIN WILL DEVELOP AFTER MIDNIGHT OVER SOUTHWEST MONTANA. THIS RAIN WILL SPREAD NORTH ACROSS NORTH CENTRAL MONTANA BY THURSDAY MORNING. CEILING WILL DROP BELOW 3000 FEET IN THE RAIN. MEIER && .PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS... GTF 44 50 36 53 / 50 100 40 20 CTB 42 52 35 51 / 40 90 40 30 HLN 45 53 32 53 / 70 90 30 30 BZN 43 50 34 52 / 60 90 40 30 WEY 36 41 28 41 / 50 70 50 40 DLN 40 47 31 50 / 70 80 20 20 HVR 49 59 41 56 / 50 100 60 30 LWT 46 51 34 50 / 50 90 50 30 && .TFX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... NONE. && SHORT TERM...CAMP LONG TERM...BLANK AVIATION...MEIER WEATHER.GOV/GREATFALLS
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREAT FALLS MT 444 AM MDT WED MAY 2 2007 MTZ008>015-044>055-031045- BEAVERHEAD-NORTHERN ROCKY MOUNTAIN FRONT-EASTERN GLACIER-HILL- CASCADE-CHOUTEAU-CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN LEWIS AND CLARK-MADISON- TOOLE-LIBERTY-EASTERN PONDERA-BLAINE- SOUTHERN ROCKY MOUNTAIN FRONT-EASTERN TETON-JUDITH BASIN-FERGUS- JEFFERSON-BROADWATER-MEAGHER-GALLATIN- 444 AM MDT WED MAY 2 2007 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF CENTRAL MONTANA...NORTH CENTRAL MONTANA AND SOUTHWEST MONTANA. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT THE PROBABILITY FOR WIDESPREAD HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS LOW. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...THURSDAY THROUGH TUESDAY THE PROBABILITY FOR WIDESPREAD HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS LOW. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... WEATHER SPOTTERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO REPORT SIGNIFICANT WEATHER CONDITIONS ACCORDING TO STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURES.
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREAT FALLS MT
234 PM MDT WED MAY 02 2007
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0214 PM TSTM WND GST 10 SW CASCADE 47.17N 111.85W
05/02/2007 M47 MPH CASCADE MT DEPT OF HIGHWAYS
47 MPH PEAK WIND GUST AT THE DEARBORN DOT SENSOR.
&&
BRUSDAPRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREAT FALLS MT
406 PM MDT WED MAY 02 2007
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0312 PM TSTM WND GST 3 SW GREAT FALLS 47.47N 111.34W
05/02/2007 M49 MPH CASCADE MT OFFICIAL NWS OBS
49 MPH PEAK WIND GUST AT THE GREAT FALLS AIRPORT.
&&
BRUSDAThe Great Falls radar (KTFX), 97 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 22:07 UTC.
1 hail. Local standard time, as filed.
Two farmers independently reported 4 inches of marble to penny sized soft hail around 10 miles south of Galata in southeast Toole county.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Montana in 2007Every state in 2007This day in weather historyWarnings in Montana, May 2007
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: 21086.