H700 winds on the order of 50 kts developed while a lee side surface trough deepened. The result was for a period of strong winds along the Rocky Mountain Front and across the MT-200 corridor.
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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 TFX wrote it up.
H700 winds on the order of 50 kts developed while a lee side surface trough deepened. The result was for a period of strong winds along the Rocky Mountain Front and across the MT-200 corridor.
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 23, 8:46 AM MST, 2 hours 14 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Great Falls MT 846 AM MST Fri Feb 23 2024 .SYNOPSIS... Mild temperatures, periods of strong gusty winds, and mountain snow are expected this weekend before a vigorous cold front delivers a quick shot of much colder air and more widespread snowfall Monday and Tuesday. Temperatures quickly rebound during the second half of next week, but the unsettled weather pattern and mountain snow will more or less continue for much of the week. && .UPDATE... The morning update has been published. Given the latest wind observations along the Rocky Mountain Front, specifically at Deep Creek and the L-C Portable #1, winds have begun to gust sooner than the originally anticipated High Wind Warning. Opted to advance the warning for zones 301 and 307 accordingly, from a start time of 21z to 17z to account for these gusts. Otherwise, apart from updating the hourly temperatures with the latest data, no further amendments were necessary. - Pierce && .AVIATION... 445 AM MST Fri Feb 23 2024 (23/12Z TAF Period) VFR conditions prevail for the TAF period. Some high clouds continue to pass throughout the day. The main concern for the TAF period will be the gusty winds along the Rocky Mountain Front and Central/North Central MT. Westerly wind gusts up to 30-35kts along the Rocky Mountain Front continue through this morning. These westerly/southwesterly winds will pick up across the plains this afternoon. KCTB could see wind gusts up to 50kts early Saturday morning, with adjacent Central MT plains seeing up to 35kts. The increased winds aloft can also cause some mountain wave turbulence as well. -Wilson Refer to weather.gov/zlc for more detailed regional aviation weather and hazard information. && .PREV DISCUSSION... /ISSUED 445 AM MST Fri Feb 23 2024/ A west to northwesterly flow aloft becomes established this weekend, increasing mountain snow activity by Saturday while periods of strong gusty winds move through the region. Accumulating snow will initially be confined to locations along the Continental Divide from Roger's Pass north to the Canadian border where probabilities for 2 inches of snow or more are running above 70% through noon Sunday. Deep moisture streams towards the Divide thereafter, beginning a period of heavier snow for the aforementioned areas while expanding accumulating snow chances to other mountain areas. Winds will become strong and gusty along the Rocky Mountain Front and the plains this afternoon through Tuesday morning. H700 winds will be around 50 kts or above and forecast soundings are showing signals of mountain wave activity, especially tonight. Probabilities for gusts in excess of 55 mph are running above 70% for some of these areas. Given these developments, the Central MT highway 200 corridor will be added to the current High Wind Warning. Strong winds potentially become even more widespread on Sunday as a wide swatch of H700 50 kt + flow and lee side surface troughing combine for favorable high wind conditions. Probabilities for gusts over 55 mph along the Rocky Mountain Front, the Central Montana highway 200 corridor, and the southwest higher peaks/south to north oriented valleys. A High Wind Watch has been issued for these areas Sunday afternoon through Monday morning. A vigorous Pacific trough and attendant cold front passes through Central/North-central MT Monday morning before traversing the southwest later in the afternoon. This system features impressive frontogenesis supported by H500/H700 temperatures approaching -40C/-20C respectively. This will result in a rapid drop in temperatures from the 30s and 40s to the teens and 20s. Mountain snow will be enhanced and there will be a period of potentially intense localized snow shower activity for lower elevations during and shortly after the frontal passage. A array of winter weather products is anticipated, particularly for the mountains Sunday afternoon through early Tuesday, though probabilistic guidance is currently only supporting higher end chances (60% +) for snowfall in excess of 6 inches over the immediate eastern slopes of the Northern Continental Divide at this time. Regardless, expect an active weather period Monday/Monday night. Snow diminishes and ends for all areas by Tuesday morning, but it does pick up again along the Continental Divide once again Tuesday night via a return of moist westerly flow aloft. Temperatures remain on the chilly side on Tuesday, but there are some uncertainties with the return of westerly flow aloft. The latest NBM and many other deterministic models bring in 20s and 30s to many locations on Tuesday. This is a sharp contrast from the previous shift and seems a bit rushed. While westerly flow does return quickly on Tuesday, H700 temperatures remain around -20C until the very end of the day. With this in mind, I decided to lower Tuesday's highs a little closer to the previous shift rather than sticking with the raw NBM. Winds will also be a concern along the Rocky Mountain Front, plains, and portions of the southwest Tuesday afternoon/night. Gusty winds in the 25 to 40 mph range will have the potential to cause blowing/drifting snow (depending on how much snow actually falls) before temperatures warm above freezing later Tuesday night into Wednesday. All ensembles are in agreement with westerly flow returning to the Northern Rockies for the second half of the work week. This will result in a quick return to above average temperatures for most locations, though southwestern areas will run closer to average. Despite the warming temperatures, much of next week will be windy and or unsettled. The NAEFS show H700 flow around 50 kts (about 2 standard deviations above climatology) for Wednesday and Thursday and the latest NBM 4.1 probabilistic guidance is already running above 50% for wind gusts in excess of 55 mph along the Rocky Mountain Front, the Central Montana highway 200 corridor, and the southwest higher peaks/south to north oriented valleys. In addition to the winds, mountain snow will be heavy at times, especially for locations along the Northern Continental Divide Wednesday into Thursday. Models uncertainty then increases heading into next weekend. About three quarters of ensembles do bring another larger scale Pacific trough at some point next weekend, but there are still sizable disagreements on depth, phasing, and overall timing that need to be sorted out. - RCG && .PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS... GTF 46 35 47 37 / 0 0 10 10 CTB 43 31 40 30 / 0 0 10 0 HLN 45 31 47 34 / 0 0 10 20 BZN 42 22 45 29 / 0 0 0 20 WYS 33 16 34 20 / 0 0 0 10 DLN 39 21 42 27 / 0 0 0 0 HVR 45 27 42 24 / 0 0 10 10 LWT 46 29 45 31 / 0 0 20 20 && .TFX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... High Wind Warning until noon MST Saturday for East Glacier Park Region-Southern Rocky Mountain Front. High Wind Watch from Sunday afternoon through Monday morning for Beaverhead and Western Madison below 6000ft-Big Belt, Bridger and Castle Mountains-Canyon Ferry Area-Cascade County below 5000ft-East Glacier Park Region-Eastern Glacier, Western Toole, and Central Pondera-Elkhorn and Boulder Mountains-Fergus County below 4500ft-Gallatin Valley-Gallatin and Madison County Mountains and Centennial Mountains-Gates of the Mountains-Helena Valley-Judith Basin County and Judith Gap-Little Belt and Highwood Mountains-Madison River Valley-Meagher County Valleys- Missouri Headwaters-Northern High Plains-Northwest Beaverhead County-Ruby Mountains and Southern Beaverhead Mountains-Snowy and Judith Mountains-Southern High Plains-Southern Rocky Mountain Front-Upper Blackfoot and MacDonald Pass. High Wind Warning from 2 PM this afternoon to noon MST Saturday for Cascade County below 5000ft-Eastern Glacier, Western Toole, and Central Pondera-Fergus County below 4500ft-Judith Basin County and Judith Gap-Northern High Plains-Southern High Plains. && http://www.weather.gov/greatfalls
Preliminary Local Storm Report
National Weather Service Great Falls MT
848 AM MST Fri Feb 23 2024
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0329 PM Non-Tstm Wnd Gst 11 WNW Augusta 47.55N 112.61W
02/22/2024 M59 MPH Lewis and Clark MT Mesonet
Mesonet station TR276 L-C Portable No. 1.
&&
JAFThe national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
12 high wind. Local standard time, as filed.
Asos station KCTB Cut Bank Airport measured sustained winds averaging to 40 mph between 11AM and 105 PM MST.
Mesonet station DELMT Dellwo measured multiple gusts in excess of 60 mph, including a peak gust of 74 mph.
An Ambient Weather Station at LJ Johnson Farm measured a lone gust of 62 mph.
Mesonet station kmtbynum11 measured a 60 mph wind gust just east of the southern Rocky Mountain Front zone.
RAWS station TR276 L-C Portable No. 1 measured multiple gusts in excess of 65 mph, including a 78 mph gust.
An Ambient Weather Sensor in Babb measured a lone 64 mph gust.
Mesonet station MTPND Pendroy measured two gusts in excess of 65 mph, including a peak gust of 67 mph.
A personal weather device on Duck Lake measured a lone 67 mph gust.
Mesonet station MTBWG Browning (MT DOT) measured a lone gust of 61 mph.
Mesonet station MTM76 Cascade E MDA measured a gust of 62 mph.
An Ambient Weather Station 5 miles WSW of Geyser measured a 66 mph gust.
Mesonet station MTBRN Two Medicine Bridge measured a gust of 68 mph. A gust of 59 mph was measured before the warning went into effect (845 AM on the 24th), but given there was no warning in effect further east at the time, this is not counted as a miss.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Montana in 2024Every state in 2024This day in weather historyWarnings in Montana, February 2024
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: 1153730, 1153727, 1153724, 1153729, 1153726, 1153722, 1153728, 1153721, 1153723, 1153719, 1153725, 1153720.