A slightly tighter pressure gradient and favorable conditions allowed sudden stronger winds from above to mix down to the surface.
Every event with a place to put it; 5 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 episode as NWS GGW wrote it up.
A slightly tighter pressure gradient and favorable conditions allowed sudden stronger winds from above to mix down to the surface.
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 Jan 19, 8:41 PM MST, 4 hours 58 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION...UPDATED NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GLASGOW MT 841 PM MST SUN JAN 19 2014 .SHORT TERM...FOR NORTHEAST MONTANA...TONIGHT THROUGH TUESDAY... A BACK DOOR COLD FRONT IS APPROACHING NORTHEAST MONTANA FROM THE NORTHEAST THIS EVENING. THE NAM PUTS 12Z 850MB TEMPERATURES FROM -3C IN THE SW TO -16C IN THE NE. THIS COLD AIR BEHIND THE FRONT WILL DROP LOWS INTO THE TEENS BY MORNING. OVERRUNNING MOISTURE THIS EVENING IS PRODUCING WEAK RADAR ECHOES AT 9K FT IN DANIELS AND SHERIDAN COUNTIES. LATER TONIGHT AS THE TROUGH GETS NEARER CEILINGS WILL LOWER...POSSIBLY GENERATING LIGHT SNOW. THE GRIDS HANDLE THAT POSSIBILITY..BUT SPREAD POPS OVER A WIDER AREA. FEW OTHER CHANGES WERE MADE TO THE FORECAST FOR TONIGHT. SCT PREVIOUS DISCUSSION... SYNOPTIC SET UP...A LARGE COLD CORE TROUGH RUNS FROM ONTARIO THROUGH NORTHERN MANITOBA INTO THE NORTHWESTERN TERRITORIES. A LARGE WARMER RIDGE RUNS FROM CALIFORNIA THROUGH COAST OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST AND INTO THE GULF OF ALASKA. MONTANA LIES BETWEEN THESE TWO FEATURES ON THE WARMER SIDE OF NORTHWEST TO ZONAL FLOW ALOFT. TONIGHT...WARMER CONDITIONS WILL COOL DOWN AND A COLD AIR ADVECTION BEHIND THE PASSING COLD FRONT KICKS UP OUT OF THE NORTH. 850 MB TEMPERATURES ARE ANTICIPATE TO DROP DOWN INTO THE NEGATIVE SINGLE TO DOUBLE DIGITS CELSIUS. AS THE BOUNDARY WILL SLOPE UP FROM WEST TO EAST OVERRUNNING ISOLATED SHOWERS MAY BE ABLE TO DEVELOP ON THE MINOR VORTICITY STREAKS FROM NORTH TO SOUTH...BUT SHOULD CONFINED MOSTLY TO THE FAR EAST SECTIONS OF THE CWA INCLUDING PLENTYWOOD AND SIDNEY. MONDAY THROUGH TUESDAY...THE WESTERN BOUNDARY TO THE PASSING AIR-MASS WILL MOVE TO THE EAST SHALLOWING OUT THE COLD AIR AND GENERATING A WESTERN WIND BY TUESDAY. TEMPERATURES SHOULD WARM THROUGH THESE PERIODS WITH ISOLATED SHOWERS POSSIBLE ON TUESDAY. GAH .LONG TERM...TUESDAY NIGHT THROUGH SUNDAY... OVERALL THE GOING FORECAST AS DISCUSSED BELOW IS IN GOOD SHAPE. THE ONLY CHANGES MADE FOR THIS FORECAST PACKAGE WAS TO TREND UP POPS FOR THE MIDWEEK TIME-FRAME AS GOOD MODEL CONSISTENCY REMAINS IN A LIGHT PRECIP EVENT ASSOCIATED WITH A MODIFIED ARCTIC COLD FRONT. ALSO TRENDED UP TEMPS LATE IN THE WEEK INTO THE WEEKEND... ESPECIALLY ACROSS SOUTHERN PHILLIPS AND PETROLEUM COUNTIES...AS MODELS ARE IN DECENT AGREEMENT WITH UPPER RIDGING AND WESTERLY WINDS MAKING FOR WARM CONDITIONS. GILCHRIST PREVIOUS LONG TERM DISCUSSION...THE EXTENDED FORECAST PERIOD BEGINS AS THE HIGHLY AMPLIFIED UPPER- LEVEL PATTERN ACROSS CONUS AND CANADA...WITH A PERSISTENT RIDGE IN THE WEST AND TROUGH IN THE EAST. THIS GENERAL PATTERN... RESULTING MOSTLY IN NORTHWEST FLOW ALOFT FOR THE FORECAST REGION...WILL BE MAINTAINED THROUGHOUT THE PERIOD. NORTHEAST MONTANA WILL BE UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF COLD AIR FROM THE LOW NEAR HUDSON BAY OR THE WARM AIR OF THE PACIFIC COAST RIDGE. THE BOUNDARY BETWEEN THESE TWO AIR MASSES WILL WANDER AROUND AFFECTING LOCAL TEMPERATURES GREATLY. TUESDAY NIGHT THROUGH WEDNESDAY NIGHT...AN ARCTIC LOW WILL SEND A COLD FRONT RETROGRADING INTO NORTHEAST MONTANA. 850MB TEMPERATURES WILL DROP INTO THE TEENS BELOW ZERO CELSIUS. THIS WILL LIKELY DROP LOWS INTO THE SINGLE DIGITS BY WEDNESDAY NIGHT. THE COLD FRONTAL BOUNDARY WILL SEE SOME OVERRUNNING MOISTURE TO PRODUCE A BAND OF SNOW FROM THE NW TO SE ACROSS MAINLY PHILLIPS TO GARFIELD COUNTIES. THURSDAY THROUGH FRIDAY...BOTH THE GFS AND THE EC SHOW TO A DIFFERENT DEGREE AN UPPER TROUGH SWINGING THROUGH THE GREAT BASIN REGION...WITH AN UPPER RIDGE PUSHING NORTH OVER THE TOP OF THE TROUGH. THE WARMER AIR FROM THE RIDGE WILL CAUSE THE COLD BOUNDARY TO RETREAT EAST...WARMING TEMPERATURES TO WELL ABOVE AVERAGE AGAIN. WEEKEND...AGAIN BOTH THE GFS AND THE EC SHOW SIMILAR PATTERNS OF THE TROUGH TO THE EAST AND RIDGE TO THE WEST...BUT DISPLACED LONGITUDINALLY FROM EACH OTHER. THIS DISPLACEMENT WILL MAKE TEMPERATURES DIFFICULT. THE GFS KEEPS THE COLD FRONT AT BAY...BUT THE EC SEES A STRONGER ARCTIC TROUGH THAT WILL PUSH THE STATIONARY FRONT TO THE WEST...BACK INTO NEMONT. 00Z MEX GUIDANCE SUGGESTS TEMPERATURES WELL ABOVE NORMAL...WHILE THE EC BRINGS IN TEMPERATURES CLOSER TO NORMAL OR BELOW. THE LOCATION OF THE BOUNDARY WILL ALSO DETERMINE WHERE OVERRUNNING PRECIPITATION OCCURS. KEPT LOW POPS IN DAY 7 AND 8 DUE TO UNCERTAINTY. SCT && .AVIATION... A COLD FRONT FROM THE NORTHEAST WILL ENTER NORTHEASTERN MONTANA AFTER MIDNIGHT AND REACH CENTRAL MONTANA LATER MONDAY MORNING. FRONT WILL KEEP THE WINDS UP AT 10 TO 20 KTS AND WILL SHIFT WIND DIRECTION FROM THE CURRENT NORTHWEST TO NORTH-NORTHWEST. THERE WILL ALSO BE SOME CHANCE FOR A SNOW SHOWER WITH THE FRONT MONDAY MORNING WITH THE MAIN IMPACT BEING SOME LOWERED CEILINGS TO THE MVFR LEVEL...ESPECIALLY IN THE SIDNEY TO GLENDIVE AREA. WINDS WILL DECLINE AND SKIES WILL BEGIN TO CLEAR MONDAY AFTERNOON. MARTIN && .GLASGOW WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...NONE. && WEATHER.GOV/GLASGOW
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
5 high wind. Local standard time, as filed.
At the Navajo MT-5 DOT site, a sudden wind gust of 59 mph was recorded at 1:39 AM on the 20th. Sustained winds diminished below 40 mph by 2:45 AM.
At the Comertown Turn-Off MT-5 DOT site, sustained winds of at least 40 mph began at 1:45 AM, the first wind gust of 58 mph was recorded at 2:09 AM, the peak wind gust of 60 mph was recorded from 3:09 to 3:20 AM, and sustained winds diminished below 40 mph by 5:05 AM.
Both sustained winds of at least 40 mph and the first wind gust of 60 mph were recorded at 2:00 AM on the 20th at the McDonalds MT-13 DOT site. Sustained winds diminished below 40 mph by 5:40 AM.
The mesonet site at Saint Marie recorded at sudden 58 mph wind gust at 3:00 AM.
Winds and gusts of 35 to 45 mph were common across Dawson County. A sudden wind gust of 59 mph was recorded at the Glendive AWOS at 4:35 AM on the 20th. Sustained winds diminished below 40 mph at 5:40 AM.
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, January 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: 498581, 498579, 498578, 498580, 498577.