Strong west winds aloft mixing down to the surface allowed for a gusty chinook winds and isolated strong winds to impact the North-Central Montana plains.
Every event with a place to put it; 3 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 TFX wrote it up.
Strong west winds aloft mixing down to the surface allowed for a gusty chinook winds and isolated strong winds to impact the North-Central Montana plains.
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 Mar 23, 4:49 PM MST, 11 minutes earlier. Its key messages:
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Great Falls MT 549 PM MDT Sun Mar 23 2025 Aviation Section Updated. .KEY MESSAGES... - Light mountain snow and lower elevation rain will continue through Monday afternoon. - Gusty winds are expected to develop this evening across the Rocky Mountain Front and will expand east to the plains on Monday. - Well above average temperatures come in mid week, with highs reaching the 60s to low 70s for most of the lower elevations on Wednesday and Thursday. && .DISCUSSION... /Issued 209 PM MDT Sun Mar 23 2025/ - Meteorological Overview: A small upper air disturbance with moisture being advected in from an atmospheric river in the Pacific NW will allow another round of snow at higher elevations and lower elevation rain today and Monday. Best snow accumulations will be along the Little Belts, where northwest flow aloft will enhance snowfall a little bit. Strong 700mb winds building in Sunday evening will bring gusty winds to the Rocky Mountain Front, and will expand east out to the plains on Monday. These chinook winds combined with an upper- level ridge building in will warm up temperatures to well above average for most of the work week. High temperatures will warm up into the 60s Tuesday at lower elevations, and can reach the low 70s across the North-Central MT plains Wednesday and Thursday. Towards the latter half of the week, a more active pattern returns through the weekend as a longwave trough moves through the region. -Wilson - Forecast Confidence & Scenarios: Wind Today and Tomorrow... There is good confidence for strong winds along the Rocky Mountain Front developing this evening and Monday, particularly around the Cut Bank area. There's around a 70% chance for 58 mph wind gusts there Monday. Good ridgetop stability Monday morning should allow those stronger mid level winds to mix down. Looking at the Northern Rockies, there enough support at the 700mb along with the potential for mountain wave activity that 75 mph gusts are within the confident range of possibilities through tomorrow morning. Thus the decision was made to upgrade the remaining high wind watch to a high wind warning. When looking at both the 850mb and 700mb flow from the HREF, and the potential for downsloping winds, there is enough reasonable support to warrant upgrading the lower elevations of Judith Basin along with all of Fergus county into a high wind warning through tomorrow afternoon. -Wilson/thor Snow Today... Looking at the latest probabilities, there is a pretty significant difference between NBM and hi-res guidance with the NBM being quite a bit more conservative on total snowfall accumulations. Ultimately when looking at it from an impacts-based perspective, there is a reasonable chance for exceeding 9 inches at the highest elevations of the Little Belts. However, at pass level and below, the probabilities drop off significantly to less than 50%. The expected impacts are high enough to warrant the current advisory but there is not enough confidence in the higher amounts to warrant an upgrade. -thor && .AVIATION... 24/00Z TAF Period Expect a few showers along the divide and across Southwest MT this evening, but impacts at terminals will be low. Main concern at terminals will be windy conditions later tonight and through the day on Monday. Wind gusts could approach 50 knots in the windy areas. Expect winds to decrease across the CWA after 00z Tue. Mountains/passes will be obscured at times by precipitation. Brusda Refer to weather.gov/zlc for more detailed regional aviation weather and hazard information. && .PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS... GTF 45 60 46 64 / 40 20 20 20 CTB 40 57 37 60 / 20 10 10 10 HLN 42 59 44 65 / 40 40 20 10 BZN 36 56 36 60 / 50 30 10 0 WYS 29 46 26 52 / 60 30 10 0 DLN 37 55 35 62 / 10 10 0 0 HVR 40 63 34 60 / 40 20 20 10 LWT 37 55 40 55 / 60 40 20 30 && .TFX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... High Wind Warning until noon MDT Monday for East Glacier Park Region-Northern High Plains-Southern High Plains. Winter Weather Advisory until 6 AM MDT Monday for Little Belt and Highwood Mountains. High Wind Warning from 3 AM to 6 PM MDT Monday for Fergus County below 4500ft-Judith Basin County and Judith Gap-Snowy and Judith Mountains. High Wind Warning from midnight tonight to 6 PM MDT Monday for Eastern Glacier, Western Toole, and Central Pondera. && http://www.weather.gov/greatfalls
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
3 high wind. Local standard time, as filed.
Mesonet station SNPMT Sunpoint measured a 60 mph wind gust. Mesonet station LGPVC Logan Pass (GNP) also measured a high wind gust.
Montana mesonet station Judith Gap JGPM8 measured a 61 mph gust.
AWOS station K1AM Alpha measured a 59 mph wind gust.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Montana in 2025Every state in 2025This day in weather historyWarnings in Montana, March 2025
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: 1246097, 1246102, 1246101.