Fallon, MT | July 19, 2025

A couple hours into my drive planted me at Painted Canyon in Theodore Roosevelt National Park, so I chose to pull into the visitor’s center and check models, discussions, the whole nine yards.Can’t we all agree that it’s nice to look at parameters + current obs in a beautiful location?

Storms had already started developing by the time I crossed into Montana.  Coming up on my first exit, I fought the fight of “do I go south or northwest?” Initially choosing south, I headed toward Ismay, MT, but shortly after, I turned back northwest. My gut said northwest, so I listened. Radar looked better that way, and the sky backed it up. As I approached Glendive, I could see a lowering and some essence of structure, not super visible, but there. 

Eventually, I found myself on Bad Route Road. The road definitely lived up to it’s name - deeply rutted washboards for the trek out. I can’t complain too much, though, since it gave me the perfect view - rolling hills descending into a valley as the supercell above strengthened. The inflow winds were incredibly strong here, I had to take my hat off, otherwise it would have been gone forever (gone with the wind, if you will). I stayed and snapped a few more pictures here before deciding to head southwest, as the storm was quickly approaching. 

As I made my way southwest, I stopped along the interstate to get a couple more pictures of the storm painted behind the buttes. After a few pictures and videos here, I decided it would probably be best if I kept trucking and got out of the storm’s path.

I believe I made this decision about 10 minutes too late. 

Shortly after I decided to pack up and hit the road again, I wound up in the core of the storm - whiteout rain and the strongest winds I have ever felt in my life. It was like a blizzard in the middle of July. I couldn’t see much further than 2-5 feet in front of my car. Since I couldn’t see the road, or the side of the road, stopping would have posed more danger than continuing on, so I kept driving till I was out of the core. 

After the storm moved out of the interstate area, I met up with my friend Darren and he said that we should go check in on the residents of Fallon, as they took a direct hit from the storm, which had a significant velocity signature on it as it barrelled through town. 

Unsurprisingly, as we pulled into the city, there was plenty of damage - many trees and branches scattered throughout the streets, a tipped semi, and a few downed powerlines as well. The south side of town had a few irrigation systems tossed around as well as a displaced grain bin. 

Darren, his son, and I split up and drove through town, helping clear branches and return trash bins to their respective owners, as well as making sure people were ok - thankfully everyone was.

After that, I decided to call it a day. On my way back east, I witnessed one of the most beautiful sunsets over the Yellowstone River. That was really just a precursor to what came next. 

About 20 minutes later, the sky exploded into this beautiful array of pink mammatus stretching across the sky. It was genuinely breathtaking - just how structured and shaped the mamms were, but also how saturated they were as well. 

The storm didn’t stop the show there as lightning followed me through to the ND border and beyond.

The next day, I tried to figure out what exactly happened. As I mentioned earlier, there was quite a bit of rotation to this storm - on radar but visually as well. When we did storm clean up, it appeared rotational as well - trees down to the north on one street, but the next, they were down on the east side. We may never truly get the answer to what happened, but it didn't seem *not* tornadic... if you know what I am getting at. I'm not saying it was a tornado BUTTTTT... if the shoe fits.

I'll let you decide.

This chase definitely left it's mark on me, as many do, but I think the mix of everything that happened - the storm's dark blue contrasting the sandy buttes, the storm's impact, the clean-up in Fallon, the breathtaking pink skies after, and the post-chase curiousity of the science of what exactly happened, - will hold a special place in my storm chasing memories for the years to come.