An approaching trough strengthened the pressure gradient on the east side of the Rocky Mountain Front and brought increased wind speeds to the region. Wind gusts in excess of 60 mph were seen along the Rocky Mountain Front, especially through favored canyons and mountain passes.
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.
An approaching trough strengthened the pressure gradient on the east side of the Rocky Mountain Front and brought increased wind speeds to the region. Wind gusts in excess of 60 mph were seen along the Rocky Mountain Front, especially through favored canyons and mountain passes.
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 Dec 6, 10:45 PM MST, 0 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREAT FALLS MT 1045 PM MST Sat Dec 6 2014 ...UPDATE TO AVIATION... .UPDATE... An initial push of moisture brought light freezing rain to the area northeast of a Cut Bank to Lewistown line earlier this evening. However, this moisture has moved northeast of the forecast area as of this time as a disturbance aloft has moved across western Montana. Another band of moisture moving around the disturbance will bring scattered rain and snow showers to portions of central and southwest Montana through the night, but these showers will likely remain in the mountains. A frontal boundary that has already scoured the cold air out of the southwest valleys and the valleys of central Montana should help scour out the cold air over the remainder of the plains overnight. More moisture will move down the back side of the disturbance out of Canada across the northeast portion of the forecast area after midnight, bringing mainly snow and rain showers to the area northeast of a Cut Bank to Lewistown line as the warm air aloft gets cooled by the shift to a more northwesterly flow aloft. However, temperatures should remain close enough to freezing that there will be a chance of light freezing rain there into early Sunday morning. As the disturbance exits the area, any lingering precipitation should mostly dissipate by early Sunday afternoon. Regarding the Winter Weather Advisory, although precipitation has diminished across the Advisory area this evening, the return of precipitation on the back side of the disturbance warrants continuing the Advisory for the time being. Overnight lows were generally lowered 2 to 3 degrees across the area. Although southwest winds will spread across the area and keep temperatures from falling too much more, the rapid drop in temperatures after sunset had cooled them close to previously forecasted lows and any lessening of the wind has the potential for another drop in temperatures. Coulston && .AVIATION... UPDATED 0545Z. Scattered to broken mid and high level clouds and widespread VFR conditions with gusty westerly winds will prevail across the forecast area tonight. Although most precipitation has ended, isolated showers will persist over the western mountains and near the Canadian border through about 12Z. There is also a risk for low level wind shear and mid to upper level turbulence due to strong winds aloft. Skies are expected to become mostly clear to partly cloudy after 18Z Sunday with winds diminishing aloft. mpj && .PREV DISCUSSION... /ISSUED 518 PM MST Sat Dec 6 2014/ Quick update to advisory...Have put it into effect immediately, as radar is indicating echoes already moving into Hill and Blaine Counties. Coulston Tonight through Monday...An upper level disturbance will continue to move eastward through the region. Expect rain and snow over the Rocky Mountain Front to become mostly snow by late evening. As the precip moves east into Hill and Blaine counties...a mix of rain/snow/freezing rain will be possible...as the cold air really never left much of this region. Thus a winter weather advisory for a mix bag of precipitation has been issued for this region. Winds will be fairly strong aloft...but at this time I do not expect the strong winds to mix down...thus no wind highlights at this time. Temperatures on Sunday will be a touch cooler in the western portions of the region...with most of the precipitation ending by late morning. For Monday...expect fairly dry and quiet conditions...with mild temperatures returning to much of the region. Monday night through Saturday...The weather pattern for the medium range period, consisting of a series of weak disturbances aloft and upper ridges, remains largely unchanged. Models bring an upper trof across the area Monday night but a dearth of available moisture results in a dry passage. Ridging takes place Tuesday but weak impulses moving through the ridge allow for precipitation to develop but remain confined to the western mountains. An upper trof approaching the west coast Wednesday will result in an increasing southwest flow aloft and showers over the southwest and western mountains. Pacific moisture ahead of the west coast trof moves across the area Thursday increasing the areal extent of developing showers. By Friday, the models diverge a bit with their solutions. The GFS is faster bringing the west coast trof across the Pacific Northwest while the European keeps this feature further west and, therefore drier. Have leaned toward the European solution for Friday and confined precipitation to the mountains. The upper ridge rebuilds over the west coast Saturday and a moist northwest flow aloft sets up over the area. Showers will become a bit more widespread to start the weekend. Temperatures will continue some 10 to 15 degrees above seasonal averages to start the week but will begin to cool Friday with readings dropping back to near seasonal averages Saturday. && .PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS... GTF 32 45 25 44 / 20 10 0 0 CTB 30 43 21 43 / 20 10 0 0 HLN 27 41 21 38 / 30 10 0 10 BZN 23 39 17 39 / 20 10 0 0 WEY 23 36 23 40 / 30 20 10 0 DLN 25 42 25 47 / 20 0 10 10 HVR 24 41 18 36 / 100 50 0 0 LWT 33 45 24 47 / 30 30 0 0 && .TFX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY until Noon MST Sunday Blaine...Hill. && weather.gov/greatfalls www.twitter.com/NWSGreatFalls www.facebook.com/NWSGreatFalls
2 high wind. Local standard time, as filed.
High wind gusts, measured at 53KT (61MPH), were reported 13 mi W of Bynum, MT at the Dellwo site.
High wind gusts, measured at 50KT (58MPH), were reported 1 mi E of East Glacier Park, MT at the Two Medicine Bridge DOT site.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Montana in 2014Every state in 2014This day in weather historyWarnings in Montana, December 2014
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: 552711, 552712.