A late season Colorado Low formed off the Front Range of Colorado and tracked northeast into the Dakotas. A band of heavy snow and strong winds formed on the northwest quadrant of this system and brought blizzard conditions to far eastern Montana and western North Dakota.
Every event with a place to put it; 9 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.
A late season Colorado Low formed off the Front Range of Colorado and tracked northeast into the Dakotas. A band of heavy snow and strong winds formed on the northwest quadrant of this system and brought blizzard conditions to far eastern Montana and western North Dakota.
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 Apr 22, 8:04 PM MST, 2 hours 56 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Glasgow MT 904 PM MDT Fri Apr 22 2022 .DISCUSSION... Evening update: This is a storm that has the potential of breaking one day snowfall totals and having significant impacts. Some places such as Wibaux, Glendive,Culbertson and Plentywood could see 1/3 of their annual snowfall in one event. Combined with winds up to 50 mph or so, especially in the area from the North Dakota border westward to Wolf Point and Circle, this storm is serious. *Travel will be difficult if not impossible. *The cold advisory for newborn livestock system indicates extreme conditions for newborn livestock, but this is enough to impact all livestock (and based on the number of calls we've had tonight, ranchers are preparing as best they can) *power outages could occur *commerce may come to a stand still for 24-48 hours along the MonDak region. It's a complicated scenario in our weather grids and this is the type of system you don't see every day. We have fog forming and also advecting north ahead of the convective moisture coming up through Wyoming and South Dakota. Visibilities are dropping in quite a few areas with Beach, ND less than a quarter of a mile. As we move deeper into this event, things really pick up tomorrow morning as we have rain, freezing rain, ice pellets/sleet, snow (up to 2" an hour at times) all in the forecast. Elevation will make a big difference with areas like the Big Sheeps and Beaver Hill, etc having more snow than rain, and valleys getting more of the rain before turning to snow. As the upper level low moves NNE-ward, winds will increase and by daylight Saturday, gusts will start hitting 35 mph and by noon up to 50 mph. Wind gust decrease a bit during the day Saturday, but are still in the 35 mph range until later Sunday morning. Best advice: *Stay home once freezing rain hits and/or snow starts accumulating. *If you are a rancher and are calving/lambing have a winter survival kit in your pickups/campers etc. *Have a source of heat if you do lose power or an alternate location to go before the storm hits. Richland County will have heating shelters ready in Sidney and other locations if needed. Fransen ------------- Previous Discussion: Colorado Low that will be our big weather maker for this weekend has formed and has begun to intensify. Although a few showers are likely this afternoon over the area, the main part of the storm will arrive later tonight. Rain will change over to freezing rain or mixed precipitation around midnight and become all snow by tomorrow morning. Blizzard like conditions will exist over the eastern portion of Montana as well as western North Dakota throughout the day Saturday. Precipitation will begin to taper off late afternoon Saturday in the western part of the CWA, and the entire storm should exit the far eastern part of Montana by midday Sunday. Once this storm moves out of the area Sunday there will be a couple days of quiet weather with a few degrees warming. A weak disturbance may bring a couple showers on Wednesday. Friday could see another decent size storm system move through the area. Still a bit early to determine how high the impact will be but definitely a scenario to keep our eye on. RMB && .AVIATION... LAST UPDATED: 2030Z FLIGHT CAT: MVFR to Airport Shutdown. DISCUSSION: TAFs will be difficult to keep up with as this storm most likely deteriorates conditions to the point where KGDV and KSDY may have to shut down. Many impacts will be felt with this storm starting with areas of rain changing into a freezing rain and then snow event with heavy snowfall by 15-18z. Blizzard conditions will be likely over the Yellowstone River Valley terminals, with IFR conditions to LIFR conditions possible as far west as KGGW and KOLF. These conditions will last the majority of the day Saturday with precipitation tapering off west to east Saturday night into Sunday morning and finally exiting the area Sunday afternoon. WIND: N-NE 15-25kts, gusts 30-35 kts tonight and tomorrow. RMB/TEF && .GLASGOW WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... Winter Weather Advisory from midnight tonight to 6 AM MDT Sunday for Central and Southern Valley...Daniels...Garfield...Western Roosevelt. Lake Wind Advisory from midnight tonight to 6 AM MDT Sunday For Fort Peck Lake for Central and Southeast Phillips...Petroleum. Blizzard Warning from midnight tonight to 6 AM MDT Sunday for Dawson...Eastern Roosevelt...McCone...Prairie...Richland... Sheridan...Wibaux. && weather.gov/glasgow
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
4 heavy snow, 3 high wind, 2 blizzard. Local standard time, as filed.
Snowfall amounts across Prairie County ranged from 7.0 to 12.0 inches. The greatest amount of 12.0 inches was reported by the public, via Facebook, at 10 WNW McCloud and 15 NNE McCloud. Times are estimated.
Snowfall amounts across Dawson County ranged from 6.0 to 18.0 inches. The greatest amount of 18.0 inches was reported by the public, via Facebook, at Hodges. Times are estimated.
Snowfall amounts across Richland County ranged from 2.9 to 12.0 inches. The greatest amount of 12.0 inches was reported by the public, via Facebook, in Sidney. Times are estimated.
Public reported, via Facebook, 15.0 inches of snow in Wibaux. Power was out and tree branches were down. Times are estimated.
Intermittent blizzard conditions were reported from the morning to mid-afternoon on the 23rd, at the Beach Airport AWOS. Time of event ending is estimated due to power loss during the afternoon.
Intermittent blizzard conditions were reported from the morning to mid-afternoon on the 23rd, at the Sidney-Richland Airport (KSDY) ASOS. Time of event ending is estimated due to power loss during the afternoon.
A peak wind gust of 66 mph occurred at the Wolf Point Airport (KOLF) ASOS site at 1:53 PM and 2:06 PM.
A peak wind gust of 67 mph occurred at 2:45 PM and 3:00 PM at the ARC-E Sidney (MTM10) mesonet site.
A peak wind gust of 61 mph occurred at 7:15 PM at the Comertown DOT site (MTCOM).
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Montana in 2022Every state in 2022This day in weather historyWarnings in Montana, April 2022
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: 1017727, 1017746, 1017748, 1017749, 1017724, 1017726, 1017834, 1017835, 1017836.