Roosevelt County

Every recorded tornado

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

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 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.

Mapped landslides

Mapped by ND GS (2).

1. Landslides mapped in the USGS compilation of landslide inventories across the United States (version 3.0, 2025), rated probable or better. The compilation joins inventories made by federal and state agencies for different purposes and areas, so the number mapped in a county reflects how closely it has been surveyed as much as how often its slopes fail. An area with few records may simply not have been mapped. Deaths are as recorded in the inventories; a slide listed in two inventories is counted once.

USGS Landslide Inventories across the United States, version 3.0, retrieved October 27, 2026.

More event types since 1996

Costliest events since 1996

1. Oct 31, 1999Wildfire$5.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   High winds sustained at 50 to 60 miles an hour and gusts to near 80 miles an hour caused minor damage throughout northeast Montana. The winds were also responsible for the rapid spread of several wild fires which reeked havoc through several communities. Peak winds were clocked as follows:Glasgow 66 MPHGlendive 62 MPHTampico 71 MPHFort Peck 66 MPH Winnett 67 MPHChain Buttes 68 MPHDry Blood Cr 64 MPHPlentywood 65 MPHWolf PT 67 MPHPoplar 73 MPHN of Oswego 72 MPHZortman 75 MPHSawmill Creek 80 MPHBluff Creek 69 MPHJordan 69 MPHKing Coulee 77 MPHSidney 64 MPHBig Sheep MTN 64 MPHWind driven fires started by the railroad raced into the small community of Outlook. Townspeople were…

2. Jul 13, 2005Thunderstorm Wind$3.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Widespread and significant damage throughout the town of Culbertson. See the event narrative below.

3. Jul 13, 2005Thunderstorm Wind$1.3 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   14 cars of a freight train were blown off the tracks approximately 1 mile east of Brockton. See the event narrative below.

4. Jul 4, 1998Flash Flood$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Rain falling at the rate of more than 5 inches in an hour inundated the town of Culbertson. Forty-three homes sustained damage with 20 basements completely filled with water and sewage which backed up during the storm. Two homes were moved completely off of their foundations. Highway 2 was flooded and closed from Poplar to the North Dakota line until the next morning. At 11 PM local time, Highway 2 was under three feet of water which caused cars to float off of the road.

5. Jun 24, 2016Thunderstorm Wind$860,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Roosevelt County law enforcement and numerous public reported significant damage in the town of Poplar. Numerous trees were uprooted and many homes damaged, including some roofs blown off or damaged. A FEMA Damage Assessment Team came after this event and determined the extent of damages to private and tribal HUD homes.

6. Jul 15, 2013Tornado$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The tornado was first spotted about 19 miles north of Wolf Point and the NWS Storm Damage Team found downed tree limbs and a de-barked tree trunk. As it moved eastward, the tornado rolled heavy hay bails, snapped a road-sign post and flipped a loose yard shed. A few miles west of the Poplar River and just north of County Road 2042, the Beck Farm sustained the most damage involving roofs peeled away and blown off of several farm and storage buildings. Winds here were estimated at 115 to 120 mph. After crossing over the Poplar River, the tornado downed a large cottonwood tree, lifted and moved irrigation pipes, and snapped 9 power poles, then dissipated near the intersection of…

7. Nov 1, 2000Winter Storm, Roosevelt$362,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A major winter storm hit eastern Montana leaving over 1500 residents without power as nearly 2000 power poles snapped in half. The storm started as rain and produced several hours of sleet before changing to snow. After the ice turned to all snow, strong winds from 30 to 45 mph with gusts to 60 mph developed creating blizzard conditions with 6 to 12 inches of snow. Drifts up to 5 and 6 feet were reported in Sheridan County.

8. Jul 13, 2005Thunderstorm Wind$250,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   There was significant tree damage in the town of Froid. Some grain bins were blown over, and there was significant crop damage with crops blown down. The grain elevator in town had some metal siding peeled off and it also shifted slightly.

9. Jun 16, 2010Thunderstorm Wind$250,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Severe thunderstorms across the region had widespread reports of winds in the 60 to 75 mph range, but a microburst 3 miles west of the town of Froid produced winds estimated based off of the damage survey at 110 to 125 mph. The winds hit just after 9 pm MDT. A modular home that was strapped to the ground had the straps snapped, and it was lifted from its foundation, thrown 30 feet to the north-northeast and flipped over. Two people were in the home at the time and a female ended up approximately 250-280 feet north-northeast of the main debris area. The female victim died shortly afterwards and the male victim was hospitalized with injuries including a broken arm and collarbone.…

10. Jul 4, 2002Thunderstorm Wind$200,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    Thunderstorm wind gust blew the roof off of the Bainville School.

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

108°F2 times, most recently Jul 24, 2007

All-time low

−52°FJan 20, 1954

Warmest night

80°F2 times, most recently Jul 25, 2024

Coldest day

−30°FDec 23, 1983

Wettest day

3.73 inJun 27, 2019

Snowiest day

8.0 inMar 23, 1975

Hottest year

1987mean 46.6°F

Coldest year

1951mean 35.3°F

Wettest year

201921.31 in

Driest year

19845.23 in

Snowiest season

53.0 in1978-79

Station Bredette (USC00241088), 2,313 ft elevation, 26.6 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1950 to September 30, 2026; 97.4% 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 USC00241088.
• 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.
• Landslides USGS Landslide Inventories across the United States, version 3.0 (2025).
• 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.