High Wind — Northern High Plains, Montana

2025-02-22 to 2025-02-23 · Northern High Plains, Montana

Event narrative

Many sensors measured winds/gusts reaching criteria, including Montana Mesonet station Dog Gun Lake E, which measured sustained winds, averaged over an hour, of 62 mph. The peak gust in this zone was 84 mph at the same sensor.

Wider weather episode

A long cold spell for the plains was finally broken as surface troughing in lee of the Rocky Mountain Front developed Feb 19. Initially it was thought that this troughing, combined with increased zonal flow aloft would result in ground blizzard conditions along the Northern Rocky Mountain Front and adjacent plains Feb 20-22. This did not end up panning out, as winds were not strong enough to break the crust in a meaningful way. Nonetheless, zonal flow aloft continued to increase, which eventually resulted in high winds Feb 22-24, mostly near the Rocky Mountain Front in typically windy areas. Additional strong gusts developed elsewhere, but were much more isolated over this timeframe.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1245062. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.