Hail — Sweet Grass, Montana

2018-06-28 · near Big Timber, Sweet Grass, Montana

Wider weather episode

During the late afternoon and evening hours on June 28th, severe weather broke out across much of the Billings Forecast Area. The most severe weather occurred across southeast Montana, mainly Carter County where golf ball size and larger hail, straight line winds 70-80 mph and four tornadoes were reported.

Around 7:17 PM, the first tornado was spotted crossing SR 323 in Carter County about 12 miles north of Albion in the Finger Butte Area. This tornado was spotted by a rancher about a mile to the south. His property sustained straight line wind damage on the south side of the storm, including trees uprooted, a barn roof blown off, a shed destroyed, and a horse trailer flipped over. This wind damage was consistent with 70-80 mph winds. This tornado left no trace along SR 323 and moved through open terrain before lifting. This tornado has been assigned a rating of EF-0 since no damage markers could be observed. Storm chasers following this storm as it pushed east through rural areas of Carter County noticed two additional brief tornado touchdowns. These tornadoes were in extremely rural and open areas with no road access to do damage surveys.

At approximately 8:06 PM, another tornado touched down just east of Camp Crook Road 4 miles south of Capitol, MT. In its initial phases, this tornado skipped along the ground, as confirmed by chaser video, producing sporadic snapped trees and downed limbs consistent with winds 80-90 mph (EF-0 to EF-1).

Damage survey and eye witness accounts confirm the tornado initially moved north-north-east along the Little Missouri River. As it approached the river it intensified to 120 mph (EF-2) producing an increasingly wider swath of snapped trees several hundred yards wide. The tornado started to turn more to the east at this time, moving on a northeasterly track as it crossed the Little Missouri and moved across the Montana/South Dakota border.

The tornadoes stayed mostly over rural areas producing limited damage. The damage that has been surveyed has ranged from EF-0 to EF-3. The most significant damage appears to have occurred with a tornado that touched down south of Capitol, Montana and moved into South Dakota. Damaged observed just across the border in South Dakota is consistent with an EF-3 tornado rating, with winds estimated at 136 mph. Damage observed includes one home destroyed, heavy hay bales moved, along with the debarking of some trees.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (45.8300, -109.9400)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 762055. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.