MISSOULA — Western Montana weathered many storms and intense weather this past year, especially in the past month.
We caught up with MTN Chief Meteorologist Lewis Dortch about December and took a look back at some of the top weather stories of 2025, from flooding and rain to windstorms and fires.
We started the year out with cold temperatures in January and February. Missoula and other valleys were caught beneath inversions. On Jan. 20, Elk Park in Jefferson County was -41 degrees, one of the coldest towns in the lower 48 that day.
Moving into the spring and summer, fire season hit in Western Montana. It was a fairly mild season. The Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation reported that, statewide, the total acreage burned was far below average but there were slightly above average fires, compared to the past 15 years.
That means fire crews quickly battled new starts. One firefighter died in the line of duty on the Bivens Creek Fire in Madison County.
Much of Montana, around 95%, started 2025 out in a drought. Many waterways saw low flows. It was also one of the worst water years in decades in the Blackfoot Valley. The Blackfoot River hit several record lows, including most of September, along with below normal streamflow throughout the summer.
Much of this year’s wildest weather came just in the past few weeks.
“I think, Caroline, thinking back for most of the year, it didn't seem like anything was too crazy and then December hit,” Dortch said. “And December just was not typical of our weather, right?”
December brought a lot of rain and very high winds, along with above average temperatures. All of that rain lead to devastating flooding in Northwest Montana, wiping out several bridges and triggering a state of emergency in Lincoln and Sanders Counties.
“We had several storm systems moving in from the Pacific Ocean. Atmospheric rivers set up, which are basically almost highways of water in the atmosphere coming straight from the ocean, and that brought the winds and it also brought the rain,” Dortch said.
With arctic air staying up north, our moisture dumped as rain instead of falling as snow.
“If the arctic air had been here, this would have been an epic month for snow,” Dortch said.
On top of that, intense winds blew in mid-December, hammering Western Montana. At Mount Aeneas in the Swan Mountains, gusts peaked at 96 miles per hour. Missoula saw winds peak at 63 miles per hour and Kalispell saw 67 miles per hour.
“Then, if we want to factor all of that, It's been so warm, Caroline. This is going to be, for both Missoula and Kalispell, when it's all said and done, one of the top five warmest Decembers on record that we've ever seen,” Dortch said.
Moving into 2026, Dortch said we can look forward to more typical winter weather kicking off mid-January.
