The month of November once again saw precipitation amounts drier than average. As a result extreme drought conditions persisted or worsened throughout the month.
Every event with a place to put it; 16 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.
The month of November once again saw precipitation amounts drier than average. As a result extreme drought conditions persisted or worsened throughout the month.
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 Oct 31, 1:30 PM MST, 10 hours 30 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Glasgow MT 230 PM MDT Sun Oct 31 2021 .DISCUSSION... Northeast Montana is currently caught in between the influences of an upper level low over central Ontario to our east and a building upper level ridge to our west, whose axis stretches roughly up the spine of the Rockies. The trough around that Canadian low will be the primary influence on the CWA's weather tomorrow, with the ridge beginning to insert its influence by midweek. The net result of this shift will be a warming up of temperatures in the latter half of the week, with precipitation being confined to western and parts of southern Montana. There's some hint at troughing showing up in the deterministic models (GFS & CMC in particular) that the ECMWF and the ensemble clusters aren't grabbing onto yet for late in the week. In fact, the ensemble clusters keep various degrees of ridging in place over the area late in the week. 97 && .AVIATION... UPDATED: 2030Z FLIGHT CATEGORY: VFR. WIND: NW at 10-15 kts early this evening becoming light and variable tonight through Monday night. DISCUSSION: High pressure is firmly in control of the area's weather with clear or mainly clear skies expected. There could be some frost in the morning that requires some de-icing. 97 && .GLASGOW WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...NONE. && weather.gov/glasgow
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
16 drought. Local standard time, as filed.
To start November, ongoing drought conditions in Sheridan County were at (D3-Extreme) for the whole county. These conditions remained the same through the rest of November.
To start November, ongoing drought conditions in all of Daniels County were at (D3-Extreme). These conditions remained the same through the rest of November.
To start November, ongoing drought conditions in Eastern Roosevelt county were at (D3-Extreme) in the northern two thirds of Eastern Roosevelt County as well as the southeastern corner while the southwestern third of Eastern Roosevelt County was at (D4-Exceptional) conditions. These conditions remained the same through the rest of November.
At the start of November the southern corner of Richland County was in (D2-Severe) conditions, while the northwestern third of the county was in (D4-Exceptional) drought and the central third of the county was in (D3-Extreme) conditions. These conditions remained the same through the end of November.
To start November, the northwest corner of Dawson County was in (D4-Exceptional) conditions. The north central portion of the county, along with the far southern part bordering southern Wibaux County and eastern Prairie County were in (D3-Extreme) conditions. The rest of the southern half of Dawson County was in (D2-Severe) drought. These conditions remained the same through the end of November.
To start November, ongoing drought conditions in the northern third of Wibaux County was at (D2-Severe) conditions, while the southern two thirds of the county were in (D3-Extreme) conditions. These conditions remained the same through the end of the month.
To start the month of November, ongoing drought conditions in the eastern quarter and along the northern border of Prairie County were in (D3-Extreme) conditions, while the rest of the county was at (D2-Severe) drought conditions. These conditions remained the same through the end of November.
To start November, ongoing drought conditions in the northern two thirds of Western Roosevelt County were at (D3-Extreme) conditions while the southern third of Western Roosevelt County was in (D4-Exceptional) drought. These conditions remained the same the rest of the month.
To start November, ongoing drought conditions in the southern third of McCone County was at (D3-Extreme) conditions while the northern two thirds of the county were in (D4-Exceptional) drought. These conditions remained the same through the end of November.
To start November, ongoing drought conditions in all of Northern Valley County were at (D3-Extreme) drought conditions. These conditions remained the same for the rest of the month.
To start November, ongoing drought conditions in the northeast corner of Central and Southern Valley County were at (D3-Extreme) conditions, while the remaining area of Central and Southern Valley County remained in (D4-Exceptional) drought. These conditions remained the same through the end of the month.
To start November, ongoing drought conditions in northern Garfield County around Fort Peck Lake were at (D4-Exceptional) conditions while most of the southeastern two thirds of Garfield County were in (D3-Extreme) drought. The exception was the far southeastern corner of Garfield county was in (D2-Severe) drought. These conditions lasted through the end of November.
To start the month of November, ongoing drought conditions were at (D3-Extreme) for all of Northern Phillips County. These conditions remained the same through the end of November.
To start November, ongoing drought conditions were at (D4-Exceptional) in the eastern and southeastern three quarters of Central and Southeast Phillips County, with the western and northwestern quarter in (D3-Extreme) conditions. By the fourth week, the southwestern corner had worsened to (D4-Exceptional) conditions leaving only the northwestern quarter in (D3-Extreme) conditions. These conditions would remain the same through the end of November.
To start November, ongoing drought conditions were at (D4-Exceptional) for the northern three quarters of Petroleum County, while the southern quarter of Petroleum County remained in (D3-Extreme) conditions. These conditions remained the same through the end of November.
To start November, ongoing drought conditions were at (D3-Extreme) conditions for all of the Little Rocky Mountains. By the fourth week, all of the Little Rocky Mountains had worsened to (D4-Exceptional) drought and remained that way through the end of the month.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Montana in 2021Every state in 2021This day in weather historyWarnings in Montana, November 2021
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: 988329, 988331, 988332, 988333, 988334, 990517, 990518, 990519, 990520, 990521, 990522, 990539, 990542, 990545, 990546, 990547.