At its peak, wind across Yellowstone County reached 76 miles per hour on Thursday March 12, 2026, according to the National Weather Service’s Billings Office. “Across the state we had wind gusts in the 60s to 80s mph at the lower elevations and over 100 mph in the mountains. The strongest gust reported in Yellowstone County was 76 mph at the Yellowstone River Bridge MTDOT Station. One of the state’s highest gusts, 102 mph, occurred at the Quad Creek RAWS (Remote Automatic Weather Station), located near Vista Point on the Beartooth Pass. Along with the strong winds, there were many reports of blowing dust due to the warmer and drier conditions this winter,” stated NWS Billings.
Creating massive dust storms across the valley the high winds also caused a power outage of nearly 2000 Yellowstone Valley Electric Cooperative meters, according to YVEC CEO Brandon Wittman. In an email to Yellowstone County News, Wittman stated that the winds took down 17 double circuit main feeder poles west of Laurel and 3 main feeder poles on top of Hillcrest Road near Blue Creek. The wind also caused issues with YVEC’s transmission line between Custer and Huntley, but YVEC was able … Read rest of story here.