Unusually strong surface pressure gradients for June, combined with strong winds aloft, resulted in high winds across many areas of the Billings Forecast Area.
Every event with a place to put it; 7 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 BYZ wrote it up.
Unusually strong surface pressure gradients for June, combined with strong winds aloft, resulted in high winds across many areas of the Billings Forecast Area.
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 Jun 14, 1:20 AM MST, 7 hours 10 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion
National Weather Service Billings MT
220 AM MDT Tue Jun 14 2022
.DISCUSSION...
Today through Wednesday night...
Main forecast concerns are on ongoing flooding and strong winds
today through Wednesday.
A trough will continue to push trough the area today as low pressure
deepens over southern Manitoba. This will set the stage for a windy
day across the region with a strong pressure gradient in place.
Expect wind gusts to approach 60 mph at times at Judith Gap and
across the wind prone areas of Southern Wheatland County, Melville
Foothills, and Northern Sweet Grass County. There remains some
spread in how windy it could be in these areas today with the
majority of the ECMWF ensemble members showing gusts of 45 to 50
mph, generally gusts of 35 to 40 mph outside of these areas
through south central Montana. Steepening lapse rates today will
lead to some showers and perhaps an isolated thunderstorm or two.
Expect snow showers to continue over the mountains, especially the
Absaroka/Beartooth where snow levels will be around 7,000 ft.
Another windy day is in store for the region on Wednesday as low
pressure starts to lift north but we remain in a tight pressure
gradient. Consulting forecast soundings, the strongest winds in
the 850 mb to 800 mb layer actually come through the area in the
3Z to 12Z timeframe tonight with NAM soundings showing speeds of
45 to 50 kts, but lapse rates aren't favorable to get all of this
wind to the surface but there are hints of subsidence, so will
have to keep an eye on this. Additional showers are possible again
on Wednesday, mainly over northern sections of the forecast area.
Building high pressure over the area should lead to a quiet
weather across the area Wednesday night with diminishing winds.
Thursday through Monday...
Forecast concerns are on building heat Friday into Saturday when
high temperatures expected to climb well into the 90s across the
plains and possibly touch 100 in a few locations. Focus then turns
to chances for thunderstorms Saturday afternoon through Monday.
A ridge will build across the region Thursday into Friday. WPC
clusters continue to show consensus in this pattern and high
confidence of its occurrence. We will see high temperatures climb
well into the 90s on Friday and Saturday with 100 degree readings
possible. Plan on highs in the 60 to 70s in the higher elevations,
which should melt much of the remaining snowpack and lead to
additional river rises. Heat risk values on Friday and Saturday
climb into the level 2 and 3 ranges which is a moderate to high risk
for those who are sensitive to heat. Also, the NBM Forecast
Records (Tie or Break/Near) guidance is suggesting we could tie
or just break a record high temperature Friday and again on
Saturday at Billings. The ridge then pushes east on Saturday as a
trough digs into the southwest CONUS. We are starting to see
signals in the ECMWF Ensembles of building CAPE for thunderstorms
Saturday afternoon with some smaller signals going into Sunday.
While its difficult to nail now details on any potential
convection, it appears it could turn more active with chances for
thunderstorms Saturday afternoon and again Sunday into Monday.
&&
.AVIATION...
Isolated to scattered showers today across mainly the higher
terrain and foothills, as well as SE Montana where a few
thunderstorms may mix in. Precipitation today will be light, thus
only local MVFR conditions expected near stronger
showers/thunderstorms. Westerly winds will increase across the
area with gusts ranging from near 50kts in the west to around
25kts in the east. Winds will continue through the night tonight.
Chambers
&&
.PRELIMINARY POINT TEMP/POPS...
Tdy Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Mon
-------------------------------------------------------
BIL 065 049/074 048/083 054/099 065/097 063/087 058/079
1/N 10/N 00/U 00/U 01/B 34/T 53/T
LVM 059 042/071 045/083 053/092 060/090 056/080 051/074
3/W 51/N 00/U 00/U 11/U 45/T 54/T
HDN 067 048/074 046/083 054/100 064/098 063/089 059/082
1/N 21/N 00/U 00/U 00/B 23/T 43/T
MLS 066 049/068 051/080 059/096 069/098 068/091 063/082
1/N 13/W 00/U 00/U 00/U 12/T 43/W
4BQ 065 046/069 049/080 059/095 070/098 067/091 062/080
3/T 21/N 00/U 00/U 10/U 11/U 33/T
BHK 066 046/065 050/077 057/088 066/095 066/089 062/081
2/W 23/W 00/U 00/N 10/U 11/B 32/T
SHR 065 041/073 046/084 058/096 064/096 063/088 057/079
4/T 10/N 00/U 00/U 11/B 22/T 43/T
&&
.BYZ WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
MT...High Wind Warning in effect from 6 AM this morning to
midnight MDT tonight FOR ZONES 63-141-172-228.
WY...None.
&&
weather.gov/billingsPRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BILLINGS MT
835 AM MDT TUE JUN 14 2022
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0412 AM NON-TSTM WND GST 17 NE WILSALL 46.16N 110.38W
06/14/2022 M56.00 MPH PARK MT MESONET
&&
STPThe national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
7 high wind. Local standard time, as filed.
Winds gusted to 62 mph across the area.
Winds gusted to 62 mph across the area.
Winds gusted to 62 mph across the area.
Winds gusted to 59 mph at the Billings Airport.
Winds gusted to 63 mph across the area.
Winds gusted to 60 mph across the area.
Winds gusted to 63 mph at the Miles City Airport.
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, June 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: 1038936, 1038937, 1038940, 1038959, 1038938, 1038958, 1038934.