A cold air mass from Canada combined with gusty winds to produce dangerously-cold wind chills across portions of northeast Montana, mainly for Garfield County.
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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.
A cold air mass from Canada combined with gusty winds to produce dangerously-cold wind chills across portions of northeast Montana, mainly for Garfield County.
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 Feb 6, 3:41 AM MST, 34 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GLASGOW MT 341 AM MST THU FEB 6 2014 .SHORT TERM...FOR NORTHEAST MONTANA...TODAY THROUGH SATURDAY... ARCTIC HIGH PRESSURE SLIDING ACROSS MONTANA TODAY INTO FRIDAY WITH ANOTHER HIGH MOVING INTO THE STATE FRIDAY NIGHT AND SATURDAY WILL KEEP WIND CHILLS AS THE MAIN CONCERN DURING THE SHORT TERM. COLDEST TEMPERATURES THIS MORNING ARE ACROSS CENTRAL MONTANA WHERE LIGHT WINDS...CLEAR SKIES AND FRESH SNOWFALL HAVE ALLOWED FOR GOOD RADIATIONAL COOLING. TO THE NORTHEAST...WINDS ARE STRONGER AND A LITTLE LOW CLOUD FILTERING OUT OF SASKATCHEWAN HAVE KEPT TEMPERATURES WARMER. EXPECT MID LEVEL WARM AIR ADVECTION TODAY INTO TONIGHT WITH WEAK UPPER RIDGE DEVELOPING. AIRMASS BECOMES MUCH DRIER...AND TEMPERATURE DROP OVERNIGHT COULD CREATE LOCALIZED WIND CHILL CONCERNS. ON FRIDAY A SHORTWAVE PUSHES THROUGH THE NORTHERN ROCKIES WITH A SURFACE WAVE TRACKING ACROSS WYOMING. A LITTLE WARM AIR AND MOISTURE RIDING OVER THE LINGERING ARCTIC DOME COULD PRODUCE SOME SNOW OVER SOUTHERN MONTANA. ANOTHER SURGE OF COLD AIR IS PULLED SOUTH FROM ALBERTA BEHIND THIS WAVE FOR SATURDAY. EBERT .LONG TERM...SATURDAY NIGHT THROUGH THURSDAY... LONG TERM FORECAST PERIOD BEGINS AS THE STALLED LONG-WAVE UPPER LEVEL KINKED TROUGH FEATURE STRETCHING FROM THE GREAT LAKES WESTWARD THROUGH BRITISH COLUMBIA FINALLY BECOMES REPLACED BY A MORE PROGRESSIVE AND ORGANIZED FLOW ALOFT. FOR NORTHEAST MONTANA...THIS MEANS A GENERAL NORTHWEST FLOW ALOFT WITH VERY GOOD MODEL AGREEMENT AND NEAR CONSTANT BATTLES BETWEEN EMBEDDED SHORT-WAVE TROUGHS AND SHORT-WAVE RIDGES RIDING THROUGH THE FLOW OVER OUR CWA. SOME OF THE MORE PROMINENT CHANCES FOR PRECIPITATION WILL BE SUNDAY MORNING FOR OUR FAR SW ZONES...TUESDAY NIGHT INTO WEDNESDAY MORNING...AND THURSDAY MORNING THROUGH THURSDAY NIGHT. WINDS ARE FORECAST TO REMAIN NEAR CALM THROUGH MOST OF THE FORECAST PERIOD...THEN INCREASE FROM THE WEST TO AROUND 15 MPH BY WEDNESDAY. THE COLD TEMPERATURES ENDURED HERE OF LATE WILL BEGIN TO MODERATE WARMER BEGINNING TUESDAY...POSSIBLY SIGNALING THE END TO PROLONGED COLD SPELLS AS THE SPRING EQUINOX AND MORE DAYLIGHT MOVE CLOSER AND CLOSER. BMICKELSON && .AVIATION... FLIGHT CATEGORY: VFR. SYNOPSIS: HIGH PRESSURE AND CLEARING SKIES WILL SIGNAL A CALM ATMOSPHERE...BUT STILL VERY COLD OUT THERE. AREA WINDS: OUT OF THE NORTHWEST AROUND 5 TO 15 KTS. GAH/BLM && .GLASGOW WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... WIND CHILL ADVISORY UNTIL 1 PM MST THIS AFTERNOON FOR CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST PHILLIPS...CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN VALLEY...DANIELS... EASTERN ROOSEVELT...GARFIELD...MCCONE...NORTHERN PHILLIPS... PETROLEUM...SHERIDAN...SOUTHWEST PHILLIPS...WESTERN ROOSEVELT. WIND CHILL WARNING UNTIL 1 PM MST THIS AFTERNOON FOR NORTHERN VALLEY. WIND CHILL ADVISORY UNTIL 1 PM MST THIS AFTERNOON FOR DAWSON... PRAIRIE...RICHLAND...WIBAUX. && WEATHER.GOV/GLASGOW
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GLASGOW MT 328 AM MST THU FEB 6 2014 MTZ016>027-059>062-071100- CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST PHILLIPS-CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN VALLEY- DANIELS-SHERIDAN-WESTERN ROOSEVELT-PETROLEUM-GARFIELD-MCCONE- RICHLAND-DAWSON-PRAIRIE-WIBAUX-NORTHERN PHILLIPS- SOUTHWEST PHILLIPS-NORTHERN VALLEY-EASTERN ROOSEVELT- 328 AM MST THU FEB 6 2014 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF NORTHEAST MONTANA. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT HAZARDOUS WIND CHILLS OF 20 AND 45 BELOW ZERO ARE EXPECTED THROUGH THIS MORNING. WITH AN ARCTIC AIR MASS AND NORTHWEST WINDS AROUND 10 MPH OVER THE REGION...WIND CHILL ADVISORIES AND WARNINGS ARE IN EFFECT. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...FRIDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY THE ARCTIC AIR MASS AND DANGEROUS WIND CHILLS WILL LINGER ACROSS THE REGION THROUGH THE END OF THE WEEK. .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 cold/wind chill. Local standard time, as filed.
Wind chills of at least -40 across Garfield County began as early as 4:15 AM on the 6th and lasted as late as 10:55 AM on the 6th. The coldest wind chill of -44 was recorded at the Jordan Airport ASOS 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, February 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: 500289.