Cold/Wind Chill in Montana

Events

349

Deaths

4

Injuries

0

Damage

$2,000

• Winter Weather and Cold in Montana, November 6 to 7, 20222 deaths · 1 injured · $500 · 8 eventsA moist, mid-level occluded front interacted with arctic air entrenched across western Montana and brought periods of heavy snow, gusty winds and sub-zero wind chills.
• Cold in Montana, January 8 to 10, 19971 death · 12 eventsVery strong winds and extremely cold temperatures dropped wind chills to colder than 80 below zero at times. The strong winds also caused blowing and drifting snow which made travel trecherous. One man died when his vehicle became stuck in a snow drift.
• Cold in Montana, January 28 to 29, 19961 death · 1 eventLorraine Wood, age 75, in Craig, fell on some ice while trying to get into her car, the night of the 28th. She was unable to get up and died of exposure overnight. Temperatures were well below normal for this time of year, estimated to be between zero and 10 below zero.
• Cold in Montana, February 1, 19961 death · 1 eventExtremely cold temperatures in combination with gusty winds dropped wind chill readings to 104 degrees below zero in Opheim, 96 degrees below zero in Glasgow and 86 degrees below zero in Sidney.
• Cold in Montana, February 6, 20051 death · 1 eventA 55 yer old women died of hypothermia after leaving a bar in Frazer, Montana when it closed. The temperature was around 2 below zero at the time.
• Blizzard and Extreme Cold in Montana, February 23 to 24, 2011$65,000 · 5 eventsA very moist Pacific weather system interacted with a cold Arctic air mass over western Montana to produce strong gusty winds, cold temperatures, very cold wind chill temperatures, blowing snow and local whiteout conditions.
• Avalanche and Extreme Cold in Montana, February 11 to 13, 202124 eventsOver the week-long period of February 8-15, an arctic air mass settled over North-Central Montana, bringing one of the longest stretches of subzero temperatures in recorded history to the area (8 days at Great Falls, tied for 4th longest stretch).
• Blizzard and Winter Storm in Montana, November 21 to 23, 2010$15,000 · 8 eventsVery cold arctic air moving out of Canada combined with a moist pacific storm system. This produced blizzard conditions across much of western Montana, along with very cold wind chill temperatures.
• Cold in Montana, January 4 to 5, 200416 eventsTemperatures of 15 to 30 below combined with winds of 10 to 20 mph to produce widespread wind chills of between 40 and 60 below zero.
• Cold in Montana, January 4 to 6, 201416 eventsA very bitterly cold arctic air mass swung southward from the Canadian prairie, stalled over northeast Montana, and combined with some breezy to gusty winds which allowed wind chill values to plummet to very dangerous levels for the entire region.
• Extreme Cold and Cold in Montana, December 19 to 23, 202215 eventsAn Arctic Air Mass brought the coldest temperatures that northeast Montana has seen in 3 years. Wind chills with this cold air outbreak measured lower than -60 degrees in places.
• Cold in Montana, January 11 to 16, 202415 eventsThe coldest Arctic air mass in many years settled into the region with widespread temperatures of 20 to 40 degrees below zero and wind chills measuring between 40 and 70 degrees below zero.
• Cold in Montana, December 5 to 6, 201314 eventsLow pressure over southern Saskatchewan kept North-Central and Southwest Montana under an increasingly cold northerly flow.
• Cold in Montana, February 5 to 15, 202114 eventsA very cold arctic air mass from the north strengthened and spread over the region. It's persistence and often clear skies, along with even a little bit of wind led to dangerous wind chill values across most of northeast Montana for more than a week.
• Cold in Montana, January 4 to 7, 202214 eventsContinued cold air from Canada became more entrenched and more widespread, and combined with gusty northwest winds to create dangerous wind chill values for many locations across northeast Montana.
• Cold in Montana, February 22 to 23, 202213 eventsArtic air plunged southward behind a Canadian cold front, bringing dangerously cold wind chills to most of North-central and Southwest Montana.
• Cold in Montana, February 16 to 17, 200611 eventsTemperatures of 15 to 30 below zero combined with a northwest wind of 10 to 20 mph to produce dangerously low wind chills. Here are some of the coldest wind chills that were observed.
• Blizzard and Winter Storm in Montana, January 19 to 21, 200811 eventsOn January 19 and 20, an Arctic front and and Pacific storm system collided over Western Montana. Heavy snowfall, whiteout conditions, and dangerous wind chills were observed at several locations.
• Winter Storm and Extreme Cold in Montana, March 1 to 3, 201911 eventsOne of the coldest arctic intrusions brought severe driving conditions due to poor visibility from blowing and drifting snow to portions of western Montana.
• Cold in Montana, December 26 to 31, 202111 eventsA large arctic air mass descended southward from Canada to spread across our region for multiple days. Re-enforcing cold low pressure disturbances continued to rotate along the edge of this air mass, which supported this prolonged dangerously cold period.
• Cold in Montana, January 1, 202211 eventsThe week-long arctic cold spell from the end of December 2021 spilled over into the first day of 2022, with continued well below zero temperatures and pockets of light winds, which created dangerously cold wind chill values for many northeast Montana locations.
• Cold in Montana, December 18 to 24, 199810 eventsAn Arctic air mass kept caused night time temperatures to drop well below zero across much of southern Montana for several days. On December 20, 15000 residences in Billings were without power for several hours and the Laurel water plant was damaged.
• Cold in Montana, January 14, 200510 eventsNorthwest winds of 10 to 20 mph combined with temperatures of 15 to 30 below zero to produce wind chills of 40 to 55 below zero.
• Cold in Montana, January 13, 20059 eventsNorthwest wind of 10 to 20 mph combined with temperature of 20 to 30 below zero to produce wind chills of 40 to 55 below zero.
• Cold in Montana, January 15 to 16, 20209 eventsThe very large and very cold arctic air mass from the Canadian Rockies from the day before lingered over entire region. With plenty of clearing skies, gusty winds easily resulted in wind chill values lower than 40 below zero for many northeast Montana locations.

Cold/Wind Chill everywhereEvery kind of event in Montana

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.