BILLINGS — A fast-moving storm dropped baseball-sized hail across eastern Montana on Sunday, leaving ranchers with shattered windshields, broken windows and dead livestock.
While pea-sized hail fell in downtown Billings, the storm hit hardest in rural communities to the east, where hail grew to the size of baseballs and mandarin oranges, according to residents.
Click here to see the storm:
At her ranch near Ekalaka, Dusty Elmore watched the storm escalate quickly.
"It started as sleet and then the hunks of hail just kept getting bigger and bigger until they got to be the size of a mandarin orange," Elmore said Monday afternoon. "It just looked like popcorn popping out of the yard."
The storm left Elmore with broken windows and a lasting impression of its power.
"It sounded like baseballs hitting the house," Elmore said. "I've got a couple of windows busted up, I guess."
In Alzada, it was a similar story, where Erin Williams described a sudden overwhelming arrival of the storm at her ranch.
"I've never seen hail that big ever," Williams said. "It was just like, all of the sudden, it was just there."
Williams and her family suffered significant losses, including livestock and multiple vehicles.
"Our lambs didn't fare so well," Williams said Monday morning. "We had a lot of lambs that didn't make it. We lost a lot of windshields. At least eight windshields."
While ranchers took cover, storm chaser Mikey Plemmons traveled toward the system. Plemmons, based out of Michigan, made the trip to eastern Montana believing conditions could produce a tornado.
"Mainly this is warned for destructive hail," Plemmons said in the video he posted to Facebook. "We have baseball-sized, apple-sized hail."
A tornado never materialized, but Plemmons said the storm came close to producing one.
"It got close in eastern Montana, though. It was close there for a little bit," Plemmons said. "Those storms really put things in perspective for you. You really can tell how small you actually are."
Plemmons said he kept his distance, avoiding the worst of the hail while tracking the storm.
"We were trying to stay out of the worst hail. I've chipped a few windshields. I didn't really feel like destroying my windshield yesterday," Plemmons said.
Others like Williams and Elmore weren't so lucky, and they said it's a storm they'll remember for a long time.
"We were just kind of in awe at how loud it was and how big the stones were getting," Williams said.
See also:
Ekalaka seeks levy money for critical care in rural Montana
Bikers heading to Sturgis stop in tiny eastern Montana town by the thousands
