The Big Sandy Mountaineer -

My sister LouAnn sent me something she had gotten off the net entitled the top ten Montana weather events of the 20th century. Most of those weather events I had never heard of and, of course there were some that I knew about that did not make the top ten by whoever was preparing the list.

For instance, that tornado that went south east of Big Sandy and ripped down Clear Creek was not mentioned although anyone that was in it will always rank it as a huge weather event in our time.

A few years earlier, another tornado blew through the main street of Havre tearing the roof off the Havre Commercial Company. One fellow, caught in the tornado, saw an old barrel, jumped into it and was rolled several miles due to the tornado winds. That man lived to tell about it but always said that from then on, when he saw bad clouds he always headed for his basement to wait it out. No more riding a tornado for him.

The Gravel Coulee flood at Laredo caused several people to drown when a flash flood roared down from the Bear Paw Mountains creating a wall of water that rushed through many gullies. I always remember Ed Cook telling that he had just gotten a job at a rural school in that area. It was 1938 when the flash flood occurred and Ed and his father saw the flood water sweep his school down Gravel Creek, and then deposit it on the top of a bluff. Later when Ed and his dad visited the newly relocated school, not a book or desk was out of place when going through that flood. That weather event did make the list.

The huge weather event in my lifetime was the great flood of 1964. It was June of that year and no snow to speak of had melted out of the Rocky Mountains. A warm and hard rain occurred and melted the Rocky Mountain snow in a matter of hours and on both the west side of the mountains and the east side, there was massive flooding. Several were killed in the Badger-Two Medicine area when a couple of dams went out.

On the west side, the Middle Fork of the Flathead River took out the huge cement bridge getting from West Glacier into Glacier National Park and so much water was coming down the Middle Fork that it went up McDonald Creek and into lake McDonald backwards and raised the level of the lake by nine feet.

Meanwhile at Lake McDonald Lodge, Snyder Creek went on a rampage and tore off the whole west end of the hotel dining room and fireplace so much water was going down that small creek.

The Teton River took out most of US 87 from Loma to the top of the ridge when leaving the Teton Canyon. That road was closed for most of that summer while workers attempted to get something suitable for travel.

I remember I was going to Bozeman to pick up a friend and we were going to Lake McDonald for a few days. I had to get to Bozeman going through Billings and there was no going to Lake McDonald all that summer.

We decided to spend time at our cabin on Clear Creek instead. All the bridges were gone in the Bear Paw Mountains but the water was low so there were fords that could make travel through the mountains possible.

Now that was quite a flood.

This events story has many temperature extremes they count as the top ten weather events. I don't think they are because when you live anywhere close to the east front of the Rocky Mountains or in the Chinook zone there are going to be many weather extremes. Here are a few mentioned in the story.

On January 11, 1980 in Great Falls the temperature went from thirty two below to fifteen above in seven minutes.

On December 14, 1924 the temperature at Fairfield dropped from sixty-three at noon to twenty-one below at midnight.

On January 20, 1954 at Roger's Pass the temperature dropped to seventy below. That is the lowest temperature ever recorded in the lower 48 states.

On January 24, 1916 an Arctic cold front slammed through Browning, Montana dropping the temperature from 44 above to 56 below in 24 hours.

Probably one of the worst weather disasters happened on June 19, 1938 when tremendous rains of the Prairie County highlands north of terry, Montana produced a flash flood which roared down Custer Creek and into the Yellowstone River. The wall of water weakened or destroyed a railroad trestle just before an 11 car passenger train of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad Company (known as the "Olympian") crossed.

The train moving at full speed ran head-on into the far bank of Custer Creek. Of the 140 people on board, 49 perished and 65 were injured. Some of the bodies were carried 130 miles downstream to Sydney. Montana.

January 30 through February 4, 1989 a bitterly cold air mass invaded the northern Rockies bringing record cold temperatures and extreme winds to Montana. Ahead of the front, on January 30 down slope winds gusted to 100 mph at Shelby, 102 at Cut Bank, 114 at Augusta, 117 at Browning and 124 at Choteau. Twelve empty railroad cars were blown over in Shelby. Elsewhere roofs were blown off homes, mobile homes were rolled over or torn apart and numerous trees and power lines were blown down.

With the passing of the Arctic front on the 31st temperatures dropped dramatically. In Helena the temperature remained colder than 20 below for 84 hours including a record low of 33 below on February 4. The cold caused the brakes to fail on a freight train. The train then rolled uncontrolled into Helena and exploded causing extensive damage to Carroll College.

Some who posted comments wondered why anyone would live in Montana. It is simple. We can list our bad weather events on two or three pages. Many areas of the United States list their bad weather events in two or three pages each year.

Try living in one of those areas!