Strong cold-air advection resulted in high wind gusts across Fallon 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 BYZ wrote it up.
Strong cold-air advection resulted in high wind gusts across Fallon 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 Billings, MT wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Apr 28, 1:51 PM MST, 39 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion
National Weather Service Billings MT
251 PM MDT Tue Apr 28 2020
.DISCUSSION...
Tonight through Wednesday night...
Strong northwest winds continue east of Billings (gusts of 50+ mph
at Miles City and Baker at 2 pm), but gusts have maxed out, and
will begin to decrease over the next couple hours. Expect winds to
have decreased significantly by sunset, after which they will be
light and turn to the southeast thru the night. There is also some
weak convection near the Dakotas border courtesy of some modest
instability under cyclonic flow aloft. In fact, there was a
thunderstorm just east of Glendive at 240 pm. Have added a mention
of TS near Baker over the next couple hours, but would expect
this activity to shift east and out of our cwa by late afternoon
as we see building heights and drier air from the west. Temps
tonight will be pretty close to normal for late April, with lows
in the 30s to lower 40s.
Strong ridge building across the region will bring the warmest day
yet of the year on Wednesday. Highs will range from the mid 70s to
lower 80s. The high at Billings so far in 2020 has been 72
degrees, and we will eclipse that easily. Wednesday night will be
mild also, with an increase in high clouds from the west as we
begin to see height falls. There could be some rain/snow showers
over the Beartooth/Absarokas by late Wednesday night.
JKL
Thursday through Tuesday...
After a warm and dry start to Thursday, with temperatures reaching
the low 80s by the afternoon. For the latter half of Thursday, a
shortwave will move through the area, bringing with it an
associated cold front to provide cooler temperatures for going
into the weekend. Enough instability and shear will be present
with this system to bring about storms behind the cold front late
afternoon through the night. No severe storms are expected, but
small hail and erratic winds are possible.
Going into the weekend, southwest to zonal flow aloft will
persist, with deterministic models showing a series of weak
shortwaves passing throughout the weekend. This would bring about
light rain showers to the lower elevations and foothills, and
light snow showers to the mountains overnight. Regardless,
temperatures will slightly warm up and reach the low to mid 70s
by Sunday.
Next week, ensemble means have now come into agreement with a
cutoff low forming over Montana or North Dakota. However, large
uncertainty exists with the placement of the upper low, which can
vastly vary the possible precipitation amounts. Regardless, a
widespread precipitation event can be expected late Sunday into
Tuesday.
Vertz
&&
.AVIATION...
Strong NW winds east of KBIL (gusts of 35-45 kts) will begin to
decrease by 00z, and become light after sunset. Expect isolated
showers and thunderstorms near the Dakotas border thru 23z this
afternoon. Expect VFR across the area tonight through Wednesday as
strong high pressure builds over the region. JKL
&&
.PRELIMINARY POINT TEMP/POPS...
Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Mon Tue
-----------------------------------------------------------
BIL 040/080 055/079 050/069 047/068 046/072 045/059 041/056
00/U 04/T 72/T 34/T 34/T 55/W 33/T
LVM 040/080 051/074 044/065 042/067 042/067 038/053 035/053
00/B 17/T 82/T 35/T 35/T 65/T 33/W
HDN 036/080 047/080 049/070 046/068 045/073 044/060 039/056
00/U 03/T 72/W 35/W 33/W 55/T 44/W
MLS 037/078 048/081 051/069 045/069 045/072 045/058 040/056
00/U 01/B 72/W 23/W 22/W 55/T 43/W
4BQ 032/076 045/080 049/069 044/065 043/070 043/058 037/053
00/U 01/B 42/W 34/W 22/T 35/T 33/W
BHK 030/073 043/080 049/068 041/066 041/068 041/055 035/053
00/U 00/B 42/W 12/W 22/W 45/T 43/W
SHR 034/077 045/077 046/067 043/064 041/070 041/058 035/053
00/U 03/T 42/T 45/T 33/T 45/T 43/T
&&
.BYZ WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
MT...None.
WY...None.
&&
weather.gov/billingsPRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BILLINGS MT
1134 AM MDT TUE APR 28 2020
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0914 AM NON-TSTM WND GST 12 S RIDGEWAY 45.31N 104.47W
04/28/2020 M52.00 MPH CARTER MT DEPT OF HIGHWAYS
&&
JKLPRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BILLINGS MT
309 PM MDT TUE APR 28 2020
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
1230 PM NON-TSTM WND GST 2 NW ROCK SPRINGS 46.83N 106.27W
04/28/2020 M53.00 MPH ROSEBUD MT DEPT OF HIGHWAYS
0141 PM NON-TSTM WND GST 3 WNW MILES CITY 46.43N 105.89W
04/28/2020 M53.00 MPH CUSTER MT ASOS
0153 PM NON-TSTM WND GST 1 SSE BAKER 46.35N 104.26W
04/28/2020 M58.00 MPH FALLON MT ASOS
&&
JKLThe national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 high wind. Local standard time, as filed.
Winds gusted 58 to 63 mph across the Baker area.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Montana in 2020Every state in 2020This day in weather historyWarnings in Montana, April 2020
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: 882371.