BILLINGS — Fifteen years ago on June 20, 2010, a rare and powerful tornado with winds exceeding 100 miles per hour tore through Billings on Father’s Day, leaving behind millions in damage and memories that still linger today.
Watch video of the tornado:
The tornado touched down near Lake Elmo and Main Street in the Heights and carved a path south, tearing off the roof of what was then known as the Rimrock Auto Arena at MetraPark.
It was one of the most severe weather events Yellowstone County had seen in decades - and one that many residents, including me, will never forget.
Billings City Council member Bill Kennedy, who was a Yellowstone County commissioner at the time, vividly remembers where he was when he first heard the news.
“I was bailing out my window wells on the West End when the governor called and said, 'I heard the roof is off MetraPark,'" said Kennedy.
What he found when he arrived at MetraPark was surreal. Just the night before, the arena held thousands of fans for an Billings Outlaws football game.
“I got in with one of the deputies who was one of the first ones here, and we went to the back, and I looked at the building and I said, 'Why did they leave the door open?' And he said, 'Look over there, Kennedy.' There was the door over there in the grandstand on the other side in the field," recalled Kennedy. "Trees were down, Dan Mortensen statue was still standing high, but it was kind of an eerie feeling."
Other buildings like Fas-Break Auto Glass and Spin Fresh Coin Laundry were leveled. The former Reiter's Marina, now where Starbucks and Town Pump stand on Main Street, also suffered major damage. No serious injuries were reported.
"I think everybody will remember that time just kind of stopped there," said Kennedy.
Meteorologically, it was a perfect storm. According to retired MTN News forecaster Bob McGuire, the tornado developed when two supercells, or large thunderstorms, merged directly over the area.
"You've got a little spin in the atmosphere as the stuff goes up, and each supercell, helping the other one get more spin to it. Eventually, they all came together," said McGuire. "Now, you've got the energy of two supercells, and all of a sudden you've got this vertical carbon with spinning air right over the Metra."
Although it was his day off that Sunday, enjoying a Father's Day dinner in the Heights when the storm touched down, McGuire rushed to the station.
"When I finally get to downtown Billings, I'm in my pickup truck. Thank goodness, because this whole area was flooded,” said McGuire.
With McGuire behind the camera to watch the radar, the weather team, including Jeff Womack and current MTN News meteorologist Ed McIntosh, were on the air for several hours that night. It led to several days of coverage for the station after that.
“Everybody just worked really well together. We gelled, and not only that, we actually got video from our viewers all over the place," said McGuire. "It was just an incredible day. Incredible show, too."
Despite the devastation, the county began rebuilding almost immediately. Elton John was scheduled to perform in Billings that next April, and the community wanted to be ready and got to work.
“We made quite a bit of changes, $36 million worth of damage on the MetraPark building," said Kennedy. "Once the building was built and people were able to go in, I think people in the Heights took a sigh of relief and said, 'Good, Metra is back. We're going to start seeing more business again.'"
The disaster also spurred changes in city planning and weather broadcasting. The Metra’s stairwells were redesigned as tornado shelters, and, according to McGuire, local broadcasters now prioritize severe weather alerts over commercial breaks, which was not always guaranteed before 2010.
"We (couldn't) interrupt the commercials, but now that changed. If we got people, you know, possibly dying out there, we could interrupt the commercials," said McGuire.
Kennedy added that it also triggered conversations about emergency exits for the Heights, even leading to the soon-to-be-opened Billings Bypass over the Yellowstone River.
“As the city of Billings grows, that's one thing that is, how are our emergency plans? Are we ready for any type of disaster or whatever? And I think we're pretty close. I think we could withstand a lot,” said Kennedy.
Now, the numerous videos that captured the disaster that were uploaded online help preserve the memory of that day, but for me, that memory holds a personal touch.
One of those videos was captured by my father, Wade Spartz. I was eight years old at the time, traumatized by the massive funnel cloud seen just blocks away from our house in the Heights. The tornado created a years-long fear of storms for me, but for my dad, the event was quite the opposite.
"I've never seen a tornado, so I was more amazed as Mother Nature at its worst," my dad told me.
It did not take long for him to know the storm was not an ordinary summer drizzle.
“There was some swirls up in the air, and I kept thinking, 'This is gonna get interesting,'” he recalled.
But my dad, without fear, and with the rest of my family hiding in the basement, calmly stood outside our doorstep to capture the whole thing.
“As I was filming it, I could see it just going from left to right, and as long as it was traveling, I wasn't concerned that it was coming my direction," he said. “I remember the shot looking up in the sky and seeing how far it went up, and it was just incredible to see front up."
Right after the storm ended, he called his friend Jerry Makoff, an internet producer at MTN News, to share the video. Within minutes, they were driving through a waterlogged Main Street to film the aftermath.
"We were driving in the street in probably a foot and a half of water in some areas. There was just tons of damage," he recalled. “It took over an hour to get back home. It was because all the streets were blocked off at that point. The traffic was just horrendous.”
In the years since, the city has grown, adapted, and prepared. While the buildings have been repaired, the memory of that day is still fresh for many. Fifteen years later, the tornado serves as a reminder of the resilience of the Billings community.
“As far as tornadoes, I think Billings is pretty safe for it. I think we've had, what, two in the last 70 years," my dad said. "I think we're doing okay.”
"I think 15 years ago, we were shocked to begin with, but I think we're in a better place today," added Kennedy. "The tornado brought the community together.”
TORNADOES IN MONTANA
Montana's tornado season generally spans from late May through early August. The two key ingredients for tornado formation are low-level moisture and wind shear.
Wind shear is the change in wind direction with height up to the mid-levels of the atmosphere.
Patrick Gilchrist, the warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Glasgow, said, "When it comes to tornadoes in Montana, it's really about moisture. So to get tornado development, we really want a moist layer right at the surface of the Earth at the lowest levels. That is provided actually by the Gulf of Mexico."
The likelihood of tornadoes increases in eastern Montana, due to the proximity to the Gulf of Mexico, not the change in topography. Higher terrain in western Montana actually acts as ignition for severe weather outbreaks as it forces the air to move vertically creating lift in the atmosphere. The severe weather outbreaks can often last through the night, traveling as far as Minnesota.
While tornadoes are less common in central Montana, the threat still exists. There have been a few notable events in recent history. An F2 moved through Lewistown back in 1999 and a series of F3 tornadoes southeast of Big Sandy in Chouteau County back in 1988.
The Enhanced Fujita Scale replaced the Fujita Scale in February 2007.
Damage assessments are utilized in determining the tornadoes scale, which can be difficult given the rural nature of eastern Montana.
Unlike those in "Tornado Alley" in the central part of the country, most Montana tornadoes are relatively small and usually touch down in sparsely-populated areas.
In 2022, an EF-2 tornado hit the community of Glentana in Valley County, causing property damage (link). The tornado was on the ground for eight miles and had an average path width of 457 yards. The maximum wind speed associated with this tornado was 120 miles per hour.
In 2016, an EF-3 tornado hit the town of Baker in southeast Montana. In 2015, a small tornado hit near Sidney in Richland County in eastern Montana, injuring one person and causing some damage.
In June 2010, a tornado hit Billings, causing significant damage to the MetraPark facility.
Just several weeks later, two people were killed when a tornado struck a family ranch near Reserve in northeastern Montana.
