Blizzard — Carter, Montana

2009-03-29 to 2009-03-30 · Carter, Montana

Event narrative

Ekalaka received 8-10 inches of snow along with blizzard conditions. Many livestock and new born calves were buried in the snow. Records show $1,049,659 in losses for livestock in Carter County. This figure does not include what would be an average death loss during calving season, this was above and beyond the usual. This number is from about 140 livestock producers in the county. About 60 more producers probably had losses, but did not report or may not have hit the threshold for reporting. The average for producers reporting was about $7500 of loss. It was very stressful for ranchers with back-to-back storms with snow so deep there was no place left to put livestock. However, there were no serious power outages and no lives lost or serious injuries to residents.

In addition, road damage was severe with the county losing two bridges due to flood damage as the snow rapidly melted due to a quick warm-up after the storm. The flooding also did a lot of damage to fences as one rancher reported $80,000 worth of damage to fences alone.

Wider weather episode

A second major snowstorm and blizzard within a weeks time brought heavy snow and strong winds to portions of Southern Montana and Northern Wyoming. This storm impacted areas that were hit hard by the March 23-24 storm. An upper level low pressure moved out of the Pacific Northwest and moved across Idaho and Wyoming. At the same time, a strong surface low pressure developed over Southern Montana and Northern Wyoming. Winds across the area were sustained in the 25 to 35 mph range with gusts from 30 to 40 mph. These winds combined with heavy snow resulted in visibilities being reduced to a quarter mile at many locations. In addition, snowfall exceeded 12 in Carbon, Stillwater and Custer Counties. The storm resulted in one death. A 19-year-old woman was killed on Highway 39 near Forsyth after losing control of her car on the snow covered highway.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 161289. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.