F0 tornado in Phillips County, Montana
Tornado July 20, 2001 · Phillips County, Montana
NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Phillips County → Valley County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.
The path drawn at its surveyed width of 100 yards (0.06 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.
What the National Weather Service wrote
A tornado developed 11 miles east of Sun Prairie and moved into Valley County. The tornado moved through open prairie and caused no damage.
The wider storm
A large supercell formed in Southwestern Phillips County and headed east across southern Valley County. The storm produced a tornado that crossed from Phillips County into Valley County. The tornado dissipated as the storm moved east, but golfball size hail was reported for 20 minutes at The Pines Recreation Area. The storm crossed over the east side of Ft. Peck Lake and formed another tornado near the Rock Creek Recreation area. The tornado then crossed Highway 24, in McCone County. Four inch diameter hail was reported with this storm at the time of the tornado. The tornado continued in a southeast path towards the town of Circle. The last known location of the tornado before it dissipated was 22 miles northwest of Circle. Downburst winds and golfball size hail then became the more significant threat from this storm. The hail and high winds caused a large area of 100 percent crop damage from 10 miles north and northwest of Circle to Lindsay. The damage swath was 1 to 5 miles wide. Other large hail and high wind reports were received from the Richey and Bloomfield areas in northwestern Dawson County as well. 25 large steel electrical towers were blown over in the area between Circle and Richey, and 25 wooden electrical poles were snapped also. The storm continued southeast toward Glendive and then followed Interstate 94 into North Dakota. No more substantial damage was reported once the storm passed through the Lindsay area. A few smaller tornados were reported by law enforcement officials northwest and north of the Glendive area, but they did not cause any damage and were short lived.
Began near Sun Prairie (47.8833, -107.6500).
Other tornadoes from the same storm system
5 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5262559. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.
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