Social media photos and video show a snowlike layer of hail coating the ground just northeast of Billings in Shepherd, where rancher Turk Stovall with the Montana Stockgrowers Association owns a feedlot.
“Many of the neighbors just got completely wiped out,” he said.
Stovall said he feels lucky his operations sustained comparatively minor damage, but his ranch relies on impacted local farmers and the feed they produce.
“A lot of us are scrambling around right now on what options we have to replant or look for different sources of feed for the livestock in the winter,” he said.
High winds and hail joined forces in the region Monday after a weekend of intermittent storms in central and southeastern Montana, from hail near Winnett and Lewistown to flooding in Miles City.
Billings meteorologist Nick Vertz says gusts up to 76 mph Monday in the Shepherd and Huntley region escalated the damage from 1 and a half inch balls of hail.
“So you have those hail falling and just being swung about by this wind,” he said. “That’s what caused lots of those siding damages on houses and roof damages.”
This is one of the worst hail storms in recent years, according to Walt Anseth with the state Department of Agriculture and the hail insurance program.
“It’s way more severe than what we’ve seen, but it also is a very widespread storm,” said Anseth. “Instead of being isolated to one region, these storms covered a lot of country.”
He says farmers are still getting out into their fields to take account of the damage.
According to the Billings weather service, the state may be in for more storms this coming weekend.
