McCone County

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond the county. Deaths recorded within McCone County: 1.
2. Weak tornadoes were under-recorded before Doppler radar coverage became national in the early 1990s, so earlier decades read low. Ratings use the Fujita scale before February 2007 and the Enhanced Fujita scale after.

Storm Prediction Center severe weather database, 1950 to 2025.

Every large fire

1. Large fires mapped by the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity program since 1984: 1,000 acres or more in the West, 500 or more in the East. Prescribed burns are excluded. Acres here are the part of each perimeter inside this place.

Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS and U.S. Forest Service), 1984 to 2026.

Smoke overhead

1. A smoke day is a date on which a smoke plume traced by NOAA Hazard Mapping System analysts from satellite imagery covered this place's point (the county's population centre or the city centre). Counts here are of medium or heavy smoke. Since 2018 analysts have often drawn light smoke as one area over most of the continent, so light-smoke counts are not comparable from year to year. The plumes show smoke anywhere in the air above, not air quality at the ground, and smoke hidden by cloud is missed.

NOAA Hazard Mapping System smoke analysis, 2011 to 2026, retrieved October 30, 2026.

OpenFEMA NFIP Redacted Claims v3, refreshed August 4, 2026. NOAA Storm Events through 2026.

River crests

River gauges

1. Crests are the highest and the recent crests the National Weather Service lists for each river gauge in the county that has a flood stage, not every flood. Flood categories use each gauge's current flood stages; crests from before levees, dams or channel changes may not be comparable. Crests measured on an old datum are left out of the rankings.

NOAA National Water Prediction Service gauge records, retrieved October 30, 2026.

1. The Palmer Drought Severity Index is computed by NOAA each month from the county's average temperature and precipitation, relative to the county's own climate. Zero is normal; -3 or lower is severe drought and -4 or lower extreme drought. It describes the long-term balance of moisture, not water supply or crop losses.

NOAA NCEI nClimDiv county Palmer Drought Severity Index, 1895 to September 2026, issued October 6, 2026.

Every earthquake of magnitude 4 or more within 50 miles

1. Earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or more in the USGS Comprehensive Catalog since 1900. Within 50 miles means the epicentre lies within 50 miles of the county boundary (or inside the county).
2. Small earthquakes were under-recorded before the modern seismic networks of the 1970s and are still missed in remote areas, so early decades read low. Magnitudes are as the catalogue reports them and mix scales (moment, local and body-wave).

USGS ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog, 1900 to present, retrieved October 30, 2026.

More event types since 1996

Costliest events since 1996

1. Jul 20, 2001Thunderstorm Wind$1.6 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Damaging downburst winds blew down 25 steel electric towers as well as 25 wooden power poles. It also caused 100 percent crop damage over a 20 mile long area starting from 10 miles north and northwest of Circle, then southeast along Highway 200 to the Dawson County line. The crop damage ranged from 1 to 5 miles wide. Several farms had significant damage to buildings and property. The town of Circle had the grain elevators crushed in, with significant wind damage to other portions of the elevator buildings. Metal sheeting from the grain elevators was found downstream nearly a mile away. Many houses and vehicles had windows broken or shattered, and large trees were uprooted. The…

2. Jun 10, 2021Thunderstorm Wind$1.2 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Several power line poles (both from the local electric cooperative and the Department of Energy, which were replaced in recent years) were snapped at their bases in this area. A nearby home weather station recorded a 79 mph thunderstorm wind gust.

3. May 20, 2020Thunderstorm Wind$350,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Public reported wind damage just west of Brockway and just south of US Highway 200. Former emergency manager's roof was blown half off, and part of his garage was collapsed. Event time is estimated. House was totaled by insurance.

4. Jun 24, 2016Thunderstorm Wind$284,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Follow-up information: DOE/WAPA had 14 H-structure power poles snapped or blown over along MT highway 13. These power poles were less than 1 year old. The rural utility company had 50 single-line poles snapped or blown over along MT highway 13. Three to five miles west of that location, another 25 power poles were snapped or blown over.

5. Jun 9, 2016Thunderstorm Wind$280,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Significant damage to 30 power transmission poles and 30-40 power distribution poles along Highway 200 between Van Norman and Brockway. A large camper was rolled in the Timber Creek area along Highway 24.

6. May 20, 2020Thunderstorm Wind$187,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Utility company reported more than 100 power poles and 16 distribution towers down along MT-Highway 200. Started about 2 miles west of Brockway, then northeastward toward the town of Circle.

7. Jun 6, 2005Flash Flood$172,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Water was running over Horse Creek Road northwest of Circle. There was considerable damage to roads, bridges, and culverts in the southern portion of the county. Three bridges were out due to the heavy rainfall, and one 6 foot culvert collapsed along Duck Creek Road near Watkins. One home was evacuated, and three homes had severe flood damage along County Road 252, and continued to have problems during the month of June with each additional rainfall.

8. Jul 4, 2000Hail$150,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Baseball sized hail six inches deep fell on the community of Circle breaking windows and destroying area crops.

9. Apr 9, 2005High Wind, Mccone$150,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A strong area of low pressure across the extreme northeast corner of Montana produced a period of strong wind along the backside of the low. Sustained winds of 40 to 50 mph were common with wind gusts as high as 85 mph at the Zortman Mine Raws site. A total of 348 power poles were snapped by a combination of wet snow and sleet that stuck to the poles and the strong wind across Phillips, McCone, Garfield, and Prairie Counties. One of the harder hit area was in the Little Rockies where shingles blew off of several houses in the town of Zortman. The Gulch Campground in the Little Rockies was severely impacted by the storm as an estimated 170 trees of varying sizes were either totally…

10. May 20, 2020Thunderstorm Wind$100,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    At the Nelson Creek Recreation Area, law enforcement officials reported three unoccupied camping trailers were rolled and destroyed.

1. Storm Events records before 1996 cover only tornadoes, thunderstorm wind and hail. Damage figures are as reported by the National Weather Service at the time, not adjusted for inflation.

NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, 1950 to 2026, issued October 26, 2026.

All-time high

112°FJul 12, 2026

All-time low

−46°FDec 21, 1989

Warmest night

79°FJul 20, 2021

Coldest day

−24°FDec 21, 1989

Wettest day

3.50 inJun 18, 1964

Snowiest day

15.0 inApr 29, 1970

Hottest year

1987mean 47.7°F

Coldest year

1978mean 39.8°F

Wettest year

201022.40 in

Driest year

19886.75 in

Snowiest season

66.0 in1978-79

Station Circle (USC00241758), 2,480 ft elevation, 11.1 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1963 to October 26, 2026; 98.7% of days in the last 30 years are complete. Records at a single station can differ from a city’s official threaded record, which may combine several stations.

NOAA NCEI Global Historical Climatology Network Daily.

This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA. The Federal Government or FEMA cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from the Agency's website(s).

OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries, retrieved October 30, 2026. Statewide declarations are not listed.

Neighbouring counties

• Tornadoes NOAA Storm Prediction Center severe weather database, through 2025.
• Tropical cyclones NOAA National Hurricane Center HURDAT2 (Atlantic; Northeast and Central Pacific), through 2025.
• Wildfire USGS/USFS Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity, through 2026.
• Storm events NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, through 2026.
• Flood insurance OpenFEMA NFIP Redacted Claims v3, refreshed August 4, 2026.
• Declarations OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2, retrieved October 30, 2026.
• Weather records NOAA NCEI Global Historical Climatology Network Daily, station USC00241758.
• River crests NOAA National Weather Service, National Water Prediction Service river gauges, retrieved October 30, 2026.
• Drought NOAA NCEI nClimDiv county Palmer Drought Severity Index, through September 2026.
• Smoke NOAA NESDIS Hazard Mapping System smoke analysis, retrieved October 30, 2026.
• Earthquakes USGS ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog (ComCat), retrieved October 30, 2026.

Joins, thresholds and known limits are set out in the methodology. Found an error? Report it. Page built October 30, 2026.