Prairie County

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond the county. Deaths recorded within Prairie County: 0.
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.

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.

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. Jun 6, 2005Thunderstorm Wind$145,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Damaging thunderstorm winds blew over a pivot sprinkler. The strong wind destoyed one machine shed. There were multiple reports of structural damage to occupied and unoccupied structures. A couple of cars were damaged from fallen tree limbs.

2. May 20, 2005Thunderstorm Wind$132,000
3. Jun 14, 2006Thunderstorm Wind$120,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A severe thunderstorm moved into southern Prairie county and raced off to the northeast at 50 mph. As the storm first entered the county it produced wind damage 12 miles southwest of Terry at 5:12 pm. A National Weather employee reported a pole barn was significantly damaged at a family members home. The poles were pulled right out of the ground. A shed was also destroyed on the property. As the storm continued to track off to the northeast it produced wind gusts in excess of 80 mph. At 5:30 pm an 88 mph wind gust was measured in Terry. Numerous tree branches were downed in the area, and many homes had minor roof damage.

4. May 20, 2011Tornado$75,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   At approximately 8:27pm on May 20, a tornado struck a ranch 8 miles south of Terry on 10 Mile Road. The tornado was observed by a resident of the house on the ranch. The house itself received no damage, though it was about 150 feet away from observed damage. Significant damage occurred to 4 outbuildings on the ranch. There were no injuries and the horses on the ranch were uninjured as they were out in pasture at the time of the tornado. The damage path was about 500 feet and the width was 200 feet. Based on the damage, the wind speed was determined to be 90 mph or a low end EF-1 tornado.

5. Apr 9, 2005High Wind, Prairie$56,000
   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…

6. Jul 1, 1997Flash Flood$50,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Six inches of rain in less than 4 hours caused flash flooding. The town of Terry was inundated. Both Terry and Fallon reported extensive street flooding. A section of Interstate 90 by Terry had water running across it. Several washouts were reported on gravel county roads.

7. May 23, 2006Flash Flood$30,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   2 feet of water running over north folk of Cherry Creek Road. Considerable damage was caused to outbuildings. One culvert was washed out and the roads needed repair in several areas where the water ran across them. Many fences and watering tanks were destroyed.

8. Jun 6, 2005Flash Flood$30,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Water flowed over Highway 253 northwest of Terry, and caused damage to the highway.

9. Jul 6, 1998Hail$12,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A severe thunderstorm produced golf ball sized hail and gusty winds. A large dead elm tree was blown down and a roof was blown off of a steel building. Several small trees were also blown down. Wheat crops in the area suffered devastating damage.

10. Jul 18, 2001Flash Flood$10,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    Heavy rainfall of 2 to 4 inches caused ditches to fill up and water to start running up to two feet deep across Highway 10 east of Terry. Some damage occurred to the road, but it was not washed out.

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

113°FJul 13, 2026

All-time low

−47°FDec 22, 1989

Warmest night

77°F2 times, most recently Jul 25, 2007

Coldest day

−22°F2 times, most recently Dec 30, 1968

Wettest day

3.88 inJun 6, 2015

Snowiest day

12.6 inFeb 9, 2024

Hottest year

2012mean 48.6°F

Coldest year

1950mean 39.5°F

Wettest year

199918.76 in

Driest year

19605.37 in

Snowiest season

62.6 in2022-23

Station Terry (USC00248165), 2,250 ft elevation, 1.6 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1949 to October 26, 2026; 94.2% 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 USC00248165.
• 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.