EF3 Tornado — Carter, Montana

2014-06-17 · near Capitol, Carter, Montana

Event narrative

A supercell thunderstorm developed very quickly in Eastern Carter County around 2:15 pm. The thunderstorm produced the first ever EF-3 rated tornado in southern Montana. The tornado first touched down at 2:27 pm around 13 miles southwest of Camp Crook, South Dakota, or about 10 miles southwest of Capitol, Montana. The tornado formed in the Sheep Mountains and eventually crossed Tie Creek Road as it moved slowly north. People lost site of the tornado as it entered Custer National Forest around 3:30 pm.

The tornado was on the ground for an hour and traveled 10 miles and was reported to be a half mile wide at times. The tornado completely destroyed a trailer home, twisting and throwing debris over a mile. A small and old A-frame school house was completely destroyed, with debris blown 100 yards away, leaving only the basement behind. Six vehicles were picked up and tossed up to 200 yards. Around 20 power poles were snapped off with one pulled up out of the ground. In addition, 20 hay bales, weighing 3/4 ton a piece, were blown so far away that they were not recovered. A swath of trees on the north end of the track into the Custer National Forest was flattened by the tornado. There were no injuries or deaths from the tornado but two horses were killed.

This was the strongest tornado ever recorded in the Billings National Weather Service area of responsibility.

Wider weather episode

A supercell thunderstorm produced a long-lived tornado across parts of East Central Carter County during the afternoon of June 17th. Eye-witnesses reported that the tornado was on the ground for approximately one hour.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (45.4783, -104.1832)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 515637. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.