Acton, Montana
10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1989. It stands in the Northwest Yellowstone census division. It lies in ZIP code area 59002. The Survey maps it on the Acton quadrangle. 48 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 3,802 feet above sea level.
Topographic sheets covering this place
5 surveys from 10 printed sheetsMatched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.
- 1954 USGS Billings quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1956 USGS Acton quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1957 USGS Billings quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Billings quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1989 USGS Billings quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
6 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 6 fires within 5 miles of Acton between 1996 and 2019, burning about 4,967 acres in total. 1 started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 2 |
| Natural | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 September 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 465 acres | Billings Field Office | BAR DIAMOND |
| 18 August 1996 | Natural | 4,500 acres | Southern Land Office | DOVER RANCH |
| 1 August 2017 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Southern Land Office | MUFFLER 13 |
| 1 August 2017 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Southern Land Office | MUFFLER 16 |
| 12 June 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2.1 acres | Yellowstone County | THISTLE |
| 20 January 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Yellowstone County | FUEGO 002 |
Storms near this place
29 since 1999Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Acton in 29 storm reports between 1999 and 2025: 18 thunderstorm wind, 8 hail, 2 funnel cloud, 1 tornado. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2025 | Hail | Acton | - | Hail reported by spotter. |
| July 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Acton | - | Reported by personal weather station. |
| June 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Acton | - | Wind report from spotter. |
| August 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Acton | - | A wind gust of 59 mph was reported 10 miles east of Molt. |
| August 2019 | Hail | Acton | - | Wooden fence posts were broken and a steel post was bent. Large tree limbs were down and windows in a home were broken. |
| August 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Acton | - | Wooden fence posts were broken along with a steel post being bent. Large tree limbs were down and windows in a home were broken. |
| August 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Acton | - | A Russian Olive tree roughly 8 inches in diameter was damaged. |
| June 2018 | Hail | Acton | - | The hail was reported along Highway 3 north of Billings. |
| August 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Acton | - | A severe thunderstorm produced a damaging microburst in the Acton area. The winds were estimated to be 90 mph with the worst damage in an area about 250 yards wide and a mile long. Structural damage consisted of a dozen mobile homes experiencing damage, two of which experienced significant damage with roof tops ripped off of them. In addition, three garages were destroyed and numerous other structures damaged. |
| August 2005 | Tornado (F0) | Acton | - | Thunderstorms began developing along an east to west oriented surface boundary southwest of Billings around 5:50 PM 11 August 2005 and remained anchored to the boundary through about 7:20 PM. A left moving supercell then began to move off the boundary and to the northeast. Over the next 45 minutes, the storm split numerous times as it moved northeast, but remained the dominate splitting cell. During this time, the storm either ignited or moved over a recently ignited fire by earlier convection. Around 8:27 PM, shortly after passing over the fire, a tornado was spotted by a motorcyclist traveling in the area. The cyclonic tornado likely developed along the storm's outflow and was not associated with the left moving supercell's mesocyclone. A pre-existing surface boundary possibly from convection to the north, was also in the vicinity. The F0 tornado moved northeast around 20 mph until 9:05 PM, when it lifted.Visually, the tornado was ominous looking, possibly because it picked up smoke. However, it appears the tornado's rotation was weak per video and lack of any evidence of the tornado in a storm survey conducted by a National Weather Service employee. |
| July 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Acton | - | Spotter estimated wind gust of 60 mph. |
| August 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Acton | - | no account filed |
| August 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Acton | - | no account filed |
| August 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Acton | - | no account filed |
| July 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Acton | - | no account filed |
| September 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Acton | - | no account filed |
| July 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Acton | - | no account filed |
| August 2019 | Hail | Acton | - | no account filed |
| August 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Acton | - | no account filed |
| June 2015 | Hail | Acton | - | no account filed |
| August 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Acton | - | no account filed |
| August 2013 | Funnel Cloud | Acton | - | no account filed |
| August 2013 | Hail | Acton | - | no account filed |
| June 2011 | Funnel Cloud | Acton | - | no account filed |
| June 2007 | Hail | Acton | - | no account filed |
| August 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Acton | - | no account filed |
| June 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Acton | - | no account filed |
| June 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Acton | - | no account filed |
| August 2005 | Hail | Acton | - | no account filed |
Nearest settlements
The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Comanche | 6.8 miles | 10 | |
| Rimrock | 8.9 miles | 11 | |
| Mountain View Colony | 9.9 miles | 6 | |
| Baseline | 10.2 miles | 11 | |
| Cameron Park | 10.4 miles | 11 | |
| Hesper | 13.1 miles | 11 | |
| Billings Heights | 13.5 miles | 19 | |
| Billings | 13.9 miles | 11 |
Elsewhere
Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.
| Wikipedia article on Acton | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q832844 | The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0). |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 801982. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.




