Tight pressure gradients along the Upper Yellowtone and Upper Stillwater Valleys resulted in strong winds across the Livingston and Nye areas.
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The episode as NWS BYZ wrote it up.
Tight pressure gradients along the Upper Yellowtone and Upper Stillwater Valleys resulted in strong winds across the Livingston and Nye areas.
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 Billings, MT wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Feb 9, 3:30 PM MST, 2 hours 52 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion
National Weather Service Billings MT
330 PM MST Thu Feb 9 2017
.SHORT TERM...valid for Fri and Sat...
Conditions have warmed over most of the forecast area as a ridge
axis moves over the region. Besides snow over the mountains, most
of the region was free from precipitation. Strong downslope
conditions have scoured out the arctic air mass from most
locations in eastern Montana. With the precipitation diminishing,
and temperatures warming, we canceled the freezing rian advisory.
Even with the cancellation, left a slight mention of freezing
rain in the forecast as ground temperatures are still near or
below freezing, and lower valleys in eastern Montana could
certainty see some light freezing rain if any precipitation
redevelops tonight.
Strong mid-level winds around 50 to 60 kts and continued pressure
falls over the lower elevations have strengthened the pressure
gradient over our western zones and thus we have seen an increase
in winds today. Wind gusts have neared 70 mph this afternoon in
Livingston. As conditions warm further east towards Big Timber and
north towards Harlowton, mixing has allowed the higher winds
above the surface to mix down and increase the winds there. The
strongest winds are still expected this evening and tonight in
Livingston, Big Timber, and Beartooth Foothills near Nye as the
strongest mid level winds, and strongest pressure gradients, will
be place across these areas. We expect routine wind gusts from 55
to 65 miles per hour with occasional wind gusts reaching 75 mph.
Further north in Harlowton, the strongest wind gusts will be this
afternoon and early tonight with occasional wind gusts nearing 60
mph. By early Friday morning, pressure falls will stop, and the
strong mid-level winds will begin to subside so the strong winds
should begin to lessen below 60 mph.
As the dangerous winds lessen on Friday morning, westerly flow
will still prevail over the region, along with mountain snow and
warm temperatures. Conditions will remain breezy across the
region, but we do not expect any highlight level winds with the
strongest gusts being around 35 to 45 mph in Livingston and nearby
foothills, and around 25 to 35 in the Plains.
As we move into Saturday a strong shortwave will quickly pass
through the region and bring cooler temperatures for the weekend.
At this point we could see a quick chance for snow but
accumulations appear light at this time. Dobbs.
.Hydrology Concerns...
With the warm conditions in place we are expecting some snow melt
across the area to continue through Friday evening. Significant
ice jam flooding is not expected, but some isolated minor flooding
is possible due to snow melt on frozen ground. This could cause
some minor issues with water on the roadways, but at this time,
widespread flooding is not expected. Dobbs/Chambers
.LONG TERM...valid for Sun...Mon...Tue...Wed...Thu...
Dry weather will prevail through the long term as an upper level
ridge settles in over the Northern Rockies. Pulses of downsloping
winds can be expected with weak bouts of lee-side troughing from
time to time. Temperatures will be near to about 5 degrees above
normal for this time of year. Some uncertainty exists with the
temperature forecast as they may be held back a bit by existing
snow cover and evaporative surface cooling. STP
&&
.AVIATION...
Lee-side troughing has allowed southwest to west winds to
increase along the western foothills. Winds will continue to
increase this afternoon and evening with wind gusts greater than
50 kts possible at KLVM into the overnight. KSHR could see erratic
wind gusts this afternoon and evening with mountain wave
activity. Showers will continue over western mountains producing
obscurations. Elsewhere, VFR will prevail with showers diminishing
across central areas later this afternoon. STP
&&
.PRELIMINARY POINT TEMP/POPS...
Fri Sat Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu
-----------------------------------------------------------
BIL 037/046 027/038 018/037 023/041 023/041 026/044 028/043
11/B 13/W 10/U 00/U 00/U 10/U 00/U
LVM 042/049 028/035 015/039 022/043 023/044 025/047 026/046
33/W 24/J 10/N 00/N 00/U 11/B 00/N
HDN 033/046 023/038 010/037 016/039 016/041 018/042 020/041
11/B 13/W 10/U 00/U 00/U 10/U 00/U
MLS 034/042 027/037 017/035 022/038 020/039 022/041 024/041
10/B 11/B 10/U 00/U 00/U 00/U 00/U
4BQ 032/045 026/039 015/038 019/040 018/041 021/042 023/043
11/E 23/W 10/U 00/U 00/U 00/U 00/U
BHK 033/042 027/037 016/034 020/037 019/037 020/039 022/039
10/B 12/W 10/U 00/U 00/U 00/U 00/U
SHR 033/046 024/036 012/037 015/040 016/043 021/044 020/044
01/B 23/W 20/U 00/U 00/U 10/U 00/U
&&
.BYZ WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
MT...High Wind Warning in effect until 11 PM MST this evening FOR
ZONE 28.
High Wind Warning in effect until 5 AM MST Friday FOR ZONES
41-65-66.
WY...None.
&&
weather.gov/billingsPRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BILLINGS MT
149 PM MST THU FEB 09 2017
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0130 PM NON-TSTM WND GST 2 WSW LIVINGSTON 45.65N 110.60W
02/09/2017 M67.00 MPH PARK MT DEPT OF HIGHWAYS
0120 PM NON-TSTM WND GST 2 SSW BIG TIMBER 45.81N 109.98W
02/09/2017 M51.00 MPH SWEET GRASS MT AWOS
1135 AM NON-TSTM WND GST 13 SSW GREYCLIFF 45.58N 109.85W
02/09/2017 M55.00 MPH SWEET GRASS MT MESONET
1130 AM NON-TSTM WND GST 3 ENE LIVINGSTON 45.69N 110.50W
02/09/2017 M67.00 MPH PARK MT DEPT OF HIGHWAYS
0700 AM SNOW 1 ENE FORT SMITH 45.31N 107.92W
02/09/2017 M1.1 INCH BIG HORN MT COCORAHS
0700 AM SNOW MCLEOD 45.66N 110.12W
02/09/2017 M2.0 INCH SWEET GRASS MT CO-OP OBSERVER
&&
VLSThe national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 high wind. Local standard time, as filed.
A wind gust of 67 mph was reported in Fishtail.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Montana in 2017Every state in 2017This day in weather historyWarnings in Montana, February 2017
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: 669773.