Artic air plunged southward behind a Canadian cold front, bringing dangerously cold wind chills to most of North-central and Southwest Montana.
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 TFX wrote it up.
Artic air plunged southward behind a Canadian cold front, bringing dangerously cold wind chills to most of North-central and Southwest 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 Great Falls, MT wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Feb 22, 2:10 AM MST, 1 hour 50 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Great Falls MT 210 AM MST Tue Feb 22 2022 .SYNOPSIS... The most severe of the arctic cold occurs today and tonight with widespread well-below-zero temperatures and wind chills 20 below zero to 50 below zero. Light snow or flurries will also gradually diminish today with little to no additional snow accumulation. A gradual moderating trend in temperatures occurs late this week, with temperatures returning to near normal this weekend. && .DISCUSSION... Two changes of note to the forecast and forecast grids overnight. The first is an overall widespread lowering of temperatures the next several periods closer to the 50th percentile of the NBM probabilistic range. This is based on trends over the last 24 hours depicting actual temperatures much closer to the 50th percentile than the deterministic NBM forecast, which has been a notable warm outlier (as much as the 95th percentile or higher). This has resulted in a lowering of maximum and minimum temperatures of up to 10 degrees across much of the region for today and especially for tonight and Wednesday morning, with less dramatic of a change heading into later in the week. With the lowering of forecast temperatures, this brings into play potentially even more severe cold conditions across the region, and many locations across central and southwest Montana now have forecast wind chills just on the cusp of the -40 degree threshold needed for an upgrade to Wind Chill Warning from a Wind Chill Advisory. The second change of note is an increase in PoPs for Wednesday night into Thursday as a trailing upper disturbance in northwest flow aloft dives south-southeast across far western Montana. This brings into play potential snow accumulations up to a few inches in the mountains and up to a half-inch or so across some lower elevations, especially the US Highway 89 corridor in north- central Montana. Today through Wednesday... Widespread cloudiness with some areas of flurries or light accumulating snow is expected today. Gusty north to northwest winds continue within low-level cold advection regime funneling dense cold air through some of the north-south and northeast- southwest oriented valleys, but this cold advection ends by this evening and should result in a relaxing pressure gradient by late today or this evening. At least partial clearing commences through tonight and into the first half of Wednesday for many areas, and combined with decreasing winds in sheltered valleys temperatures should plummet well down into the -10s to near -30, with potentially isolated colder readings. A gradual warming trend then continues through the end of the week. Wednesday Night into Thursday... Models are coming into better agreement that a fast-moving disturbance in northwest flow aloft will bring some snow to parts of the area, especially along and near the Continental Divide as well as the eastern slopes and mountains of north-central Montana, and the mountains and northwest-facing slopes of west-central and southwest Montana. Accumulations should be light, generally under 1 inch for populated areas and up to a few inches in the mountains. Friday into Next Week... The warming trend picks up speed into the weekend as upper ridging within westerly flow aloft begins to build in from the west, which will help to increase warm advection and cause winds to increase across the eastern slopes, eventually expanding east across the plains by the end of the weekend and into early next week. Temperatures increase back to normal by the end of the weekend, and to above normal across the region by early next week, with highs likely in the 40s and 50s for the first day of March (and Meteorological Spring) one week from today. && .AVIATION... 1046 PM MST Mon Feb 21 2022 (22/06Z TAF period) Lower level east to northeasterly flow will bring increased low and mid level clouds for much of the period. The low clouds and sporadic flurries/fog will help maintain periodic MVFR/IFR conditions at all airfields overnight and through much of Tuesday, especially over the plains. North/northeasterly winds may gust in the 15 to 30 kt range at times, mostly for KEKS. -RCG Refer to weather.gov/zlc for more detailed regional aviation weather and hazard information. && .PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS... GTF -5 -19 5 -8 / 20 20 0 0 CTB -4 -26 9 -5 / 10 10 0 10 HLN 0 -17 7 -10 / 10 10 0 10 BZN -5 -28 -2 -23 / 10 10 0 0 WYS 14 -36 19 -32 / 20 10 0 0 DLN -1 -17 8 -9 / 0 0 0 0 HVR 1 -18 8 -9 / 10 0 0 0 LWT -6 -25 1 -16 / 20 10 0 0 && .TFX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... Wind Chill Warning until 3 PM MST Wednesday Central and Southern Lewis and Clark...Eastern Glacier...Eastern Pondera...Northern Rocky Mountain Front...Southern Rocky Mountain Front...Toole. Wind Chill Advisory until 3 PM MST Wednesday Beaverhead... Blaine...Broadwater...Cascade...Chouteau...Eastern Teton... Fergus...Gallatin...Hill...Jefferson...Judith Basin...Liberty... Madison...Meagher. && http://www.weather.gov/greatfalls
13 cold/wind chill. Local standard time, as filed.
Multiple sensors observed wind chills between -40 and -44F on Feb 22 and Feb 23, including mesonet station mtnor Norris Hill (mt dot).
Two mesonets in the zone reported wind chills from -42F to -49F from Feb 22 to 23.
Multiple sensors observed wind chills between -42 and -45 F on Feb 22 and 23, including mesonet station ncrm8 Newlan Creek RAWS.
Multiple sensors in Beaverhead county reported wind chills of -40F or lower on Feb 22 and 23, including mesonet station mtbhp Big Hole Pass (mt dot). Temperature of -18f with a sustained wind of 17 mph at the time of the report.
Multiple sensors along the Southern Rocky Mountain Front reported wind chills between -40 and -46, including the Benchmark RAWS.
Two sites, including mesonet station sfjm8 S. Fork Judith Raws 12 NE Checkerboard reported wind chills of -40F or colder the morning of Feb 23.
Mesonet station mtswt Sweetgrass (mt dot) observed wind chills between -42 and -46F the morning of Feb 23.
Two sites, including mesonet station mtelk Elk Park (mt dot), reported wind chills from -40 to -54F the morning of Feb 23.
AWOS station K1MM mike reported a wind chill of -41F the morning of Feb 23.
ASOS station KCTB Cut Bank Airport reported a wind chill of -41 F on Feb 23.
Mesonet station dw0217 Havre reported a wind chill of -46F the morning of Feb 23.
Mesonet station mtmon Monarch Canyon (mt dot) measured a wind chill of -43F. Additionally, a report was made by the public of a -41F wind chill.
A mesonet in Eastern Pondera county observed a wind chill of -47F.
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, February 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: 1011849, 1011668, 1011850, 1011665, 1011846, 1011685, 1011848, 1011677, 1011667, 1011669, 1011670, 1011666, 1011847.