Breezy morning winds, clear skies, a fresh snow cover, and a cold arctic air mass all combine to create dangerous wind chills across a few locations in northeast Montana.
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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.
Breezy morning winds, clear skies, a fresh snow cover, and a cold arctic air mass all combine to create dangerous wind chills across a few locations in northeast Montana.
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 13, 2:32 AM MST, 0 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Glasgow MT 232 AM MST Thu Feb 13 2020 .DISCUSSION... The Arctic surface high is centered over North Dakota and far eastern Montana this morning. With clear skies in the east, temperatures are around -20 at 09z (2 am MST). Low and mid level clouds in the SW part of the forecast area has kept temperatures there above zero overnight. There is enough wind at this time to produce wind chills between -20 to -40 in the NE half of the region. Will keep Wind Chill Advisory in effect this morning. Surface high moves to the east today and upper ridge moves in from the west. This will bring much warmer air into the region which will bring highs back above freezing in most areas by Friday. A shortwave trough and cold front moves through the region on Friday with a chance of light rain and light snow in some areas. Gusty west winds are expected behind the front in some areas Friday afternoon. Surface high moves through the area on Saturday with slightly cooler temperatures and mainly dry weather. The next shortwave trough and cold front moves into the forecast area on Sunday and will bring a good chance of snow that will continue Sunday Night. Somewhat colder temperatures and mainly dry weather will prevail Monday and Tuesday in NW flow aloft and high pressure. Models are pointing towards an upper ridge for the middle of next week with warmer temperatures. Forrester && .AVIATION... FLIGHT CATEGORY: VFR most of the time. Isolated MVFR possible this morning. Skies will be clear most of the time today at TAF sites. There is a large area of MVFR level low clouds west of Glasgow and Jordan at 09z that will stay to the west of the TAF sites for the most part before exiting the region this morning. Mid and high clouds will move in from the west tonight. WIND: Light and variable this morning in most areas, east around 10 knots at KGGW. South to SE winds around 10 knots will develop this afternoon and continue tonight. && .GLASGOW WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... Wind Chill Advisory until 11 AM MST this morning for Central and Southeast Phillips...Central and Southern Valley...Daniels... Dawson...Eastern Roosevelt...McCone...Northern Phillips... Northern Valley...Prairie...Richland...Sheridan...Western Roosevelt...Wibaux. && weather.gov/glasgow
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 cold/wind chill. Local standard time, as filed.
At the McDonalds MT-13 DOT site (MTMCD), temperatures of -16 to -20 combined with wind speeds of 10 to 13 mph to create wind chill values of near -40 to -42 for 4 and 1/2 hours in the early morning of the 13th.
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, February 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: 875484.