Just enough surface moisture from recent snow melt was available, with near calm winds, and mostly clear skies, to allow dense fog to develop over a few locations.
Every event with a place to put it; 3 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.
Just enough surface moisture from recent snow melt was available, with near calm winds, and mostly clear skies, to allow dense fog to develop over a few locations.
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
3 dense fog. Local standard time, as filed.
At the Scobey Airport, dense fog with visibility at a quarter mile or less began at 6:55 PM. After a 3-hour improvement in visibility later that evening, dense fog returned near midnight and continued until around 4:00 the next morning.
With brief periods of mist and fog not quite so dense, coming and going for most of the day, a continuous period of 2 to 3 hours of dense fog set in at the airport in Glasgow. Visibility was down to a quarter of a mile or less.
The airport in Malta recorded visibility of a quarter of a mile or less for more than 3 hours during the later morning hours.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Montana in 2018Every state in 2018This day in weather historyWarnings in Montana, December 2018
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 2026-09-30. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 796535, 796531, 796540.