High Wind — Madison River Valley, Montana

2025-02-23 · Madison River Valley, Montana

Event narrative

Several stints of high sustained winds (47 mph peak sustained averaged over an hour), averaged over an hour, and a gust to 58 mph were observed at MT DOT sensor Norris Hill MTNOR.

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 1245076. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.