While flash floods engulfed Flint, Michigan and over 3 inches of rain flooded Boston, Massachusetts, 12% of Montana is being currently hit by an exceptional once-in-a-century drought.
About 3-4 inches of rain fell in less than two hours time, flooding streets and businesses, and stranding drivers across Genesee County on August 2, 2017. Several large intersections in Flint, Michigan were under water.
Several flash flood and severe storm warnings and alerts were issued by the National Weather Service as the storms moved through Boston, Massachusetts on August 2, 2017.
The storms contained vivid lightning, very heavy rainfall that resulted in localized street and highway flooding in a short period of time.
More than 3 inches a rain flooded Dorchester within 2 hours.
July was one of the hottest and driest on record for Billings and elsewhere in Eastern Montana, intensifying extreme drought conditions that have gripped much of the region this summer.
In its weekly report released July 27, the U.S. Drought Monitor classified nearly 12 percent of Montana as under “exceptional” drought conditions – a kind of one-in-a-hundred-year event. The last time any part of the state reached “exceptional drought” was in 2005.