Bitter cold temperatures combined with relatively light winds to produce very cold wind chills during the late evening of the 11th and early morning hours of the 12th. While most of northeast Montana saw wind chills generally in the 30s below zero, a few locations saw wind chills dropping to the 40s or even 50s below zero.
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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.
Bitter cold temperatures combined with relatively light winds to produce very cold wind chills during the late evening of the 11th and early morning hours of the 12th. While most of northeast Montana saw wind chills generally in the 30s below zero, a few locations saw wind chills dropping to the 40s or even 50s below zero.
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 12, 3:32 AM MST, 1 hour 38 minutes earlier.
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</html>The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
2 extreme cold/wind chill. Local standard time, as filed.
The mesonet site at the Whitewater school recorded a wind chill value of 60 below zero at 5:10 AM on the 12th.
Temperatures at the Malta Airport were less than 20 below zero with winds of approximately 10 mph, which contributed to extreme wind chill values of less than 40 below zero from 11:15 AM to 2:15 PM on the 12th. The coldest wind chill value was 47 below zero, which occurred at 11:15 AM.
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, February 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 2026-10-01. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 741711, 741689.