Montana has been in one heck of a stormy pattern with heavy rain, flooding, and numerous funnel clouds and tornadoes.
A tornado touched down just recently near Laurel. Earlier in June, a tornado struck the northeastern town of Lustre. A potential tornado hit in Hill County. And funnel clouds, which become a tornado if they touch the ground, have been seen all over the state.
Recently above Three Forks, a funnel was spotted. Sun Prairie had a funnel that was visible from Great Falls. Manhattan saw one and of course, the funnel cloud in the Mission Valley near St. Ignatius that went viral and made news all over the country. There have almost been too many funnels to count in this stormy pattern that began back in May.
Meanwhile, several viewers have noted the clouds and storms coming in from an easterly direction which is the opposite of the normal westerly flow. The funnels and the flow from the east are related because of the synoptic pattern, where high and low pressure have consistently been positioned throughout this stormy stretch.
A big high pressure has been anchored over southern and central Canada. Low pressures, one after another, have come up toward Montana from the southwest. rotation around the low is counter-clockwise, while the high's circulation is clockwise. both systems have enhanced an east-to-southeast flow across Montana. As the lows have approached, the position has created increased spin or vorticity in the atmosphere above Montana and Wyoming, resulting in more storms and more funnels and twisters.
Unlike those in "Tornado Alley" in the central part of the country, most Montana tornadoes are relatively small and usually touch down in sparsely-populated areas.
In 2022, an EF-2 tornado hit the community of Glentana in Valley County, causing property damage (link). The tornado was on the ground for eight miles and had an average path width of 457 yards. The maximum wind speed associated with this tornado was 120 miles per hour.
In 2016, an EF-3 tornado hit the town of Baker in southeast Montana. In 2015, a small tornado hit near Sidney in Richland County in eastern Montana, injuring one person and causing some damage.
In June 2010, a tornado hit Billings, causing significant damage to the MetraPark facility. Just several weeks later, two people were killed when a tornado struck a family ranch near Reserve in northeastern Montana.
Montana's tornado season generally spans from late May through early August. The two key ingredients for tornado formation are low-level moisture and wind shear. Wind shear is the change in wind direction with height up to the mid-levels of atmosphere.
Patrick Gilchrist, the warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Glasgow, said, "When it comes to tornadoes in Montana, it's really about moisture. So to get tornado development, we really want a moist layer right at the surface of the Earth at the lowest levels. That is provided actually by the Gulf of Mexico."
The likelihood of tornadoes increases in eastern Montana, due to the proximity to the Gulf of Mexico, not the change in topography. Higher terrain in western Montana actually acts as ignition for severe weather outbreaks as it forces the air to move vertically creating lift in the atmosphere. The severe weather outbreaks can often last through the night, traveling as far as Minnesota.
While tornadoes are less common in central Montana, the threat still exists. There have been a few notable events in recent history. An F2 moved through Lewistown back in 1999 and a series of F3 tornadoes southeast of Big Sandy in Chouteau County back in 1988.
The Enhanced Fujita Scale replaced the Fujita Scale in February 2007.
Damage assessments are utilized in determining the tornadoes scale, which can be difficult given the rural nature of eastern Montana.
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