Circle, Montana

6 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1983. It stands in the Circle census division. It lies in ZIP code area 59215. It stands on Horse Creek. The Survey maps it on the Circle quadrangle. 591 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 2,451 feet above sea level.

Research this city

Circle within McCone County

On record in Circle

Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.

On the National Register 1 record

Gladstone Hotellisted 1980

Population over time

2 figures

Circle fell from 615 to 591 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.

Year	People	Change
2010	615
2020	591	-24 (-4%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 surveys from 6 printed sheets

Matched 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 Glendive quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
1957 USGS Glendive quadrangle1:250000
1958 USGS Glendive quadrangle1:250000
1982 USGS Circle quadrangle1:100000
1983 USGS Circle quadrangle1:24000

Fires near this place

2 since 2020

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 2 fires within 5 miles of Circle in 2020, burning about 2 acres in total. None 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
Equipment and vehicle use	1
Debris and open burning	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
3 August 2020	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	McCone County	UNION - MCCONE
25 August 2020	Debris and open burning	2.0 acres	McCone County	MAYBERRY - MCCONE

Every fire recorded in McCone County

Storms near this place

60 of 108 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Circle in 108 storm reports between 1993 and 2025: 51 thunderstorm wind, 49 hail, 3 flash flood, 2 heavy rain. The reports record 2 injuries. 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 1996	Hail	Circle	2 hurt, $30,000	no account filed
July 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Circle	$1,600,000	Damaging downburst winds blew down 25 steel electric towers as well as 25 wooden power poles. It also caused 100 percent crop damage over a 20 mile long area starting from 10 miles north and northwest of Circle, then southeast along Highway 200 to the Dawson County line. The crop damage ranged from 1 to 5 miles wide. Several farms had significant damage to buildings and property. The town of Circle had the grain elevators crushed in, with significant wind damage to other portions of the elevator buildings. Metal sheeting from the grain elevators was found downstream nearly a mile away. Many houses and vehicles had windows broken or shattered, and large trees were uprooted. The Circle Airport had a measured wind gust of 113 mph.
July 2000	Hail	Circle	$150,000	Baseball sized hail six inches deep fell on the community of Circle breaking windows and destroying area crops.
July 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Circle	$45,000	A small bow echo downed eight power poles along Highway 200 and damaged a few shed roofs. The power was not restored until August 1st.
July 1997	Thunderstorm Wind	Circle	$40,000	An airplane hanger housing two airplanes was destroyed as its roof was lifted off and the walls caved in. The airplanes inside were significantly damaged.
July 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Circle	$35,000	Severe thunderstorm winds took down eight power lines in Circle leaving 100 customers without power. Strong winds also took the top off of on of the local grain bins.
June 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Circle	$10,000	Wind tipped camper over on Highway 200 5 miles southwest of Circle.
July 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Circle	$5,000	Awning torn off of a home and flipped up on the roof by severe winds.
June 2025	Hail	Circle	-	Hail up to the size of quarters was reported with wind gusts up to 30 mph.
June 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Circle	-	Public reported, via Facebook, an image of a piece of sheet metal coming off a structure at the McCone County Fairgrounds.
July 2024	Hail	Circle	-	Public reported, via Facebook, hail up to the size of golf balls.
July 2023	Hail	Circle	-	The public reported hail up to the size of quarters.
August 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Circle	-	The public reported tree branches being knocked down. They estimated the wind was gusting up to 60 mph.
June 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Circle	-	Public reported, via Facebook, an estimated 90 mph thunderstorm wind gust. Time estimated from radar.
May 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Circle	-	Public reported, via Facebook, a grain bin was blown over. Event time was estimated by radar.
June 2019	Hail	Circle	-	Public estimated half-dollar size hail, along with heavy rain.
June 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Circle	-	Public estimated 60 mph wind gusts.
June 2019	Hail	Circle	-	McCone County dispatch reported hen egg size hail, along with heavy rain.
June 2019	Hail	Circle	-	Cooperative observer reported hail up to the size of golf balls, off and on for at least 20 minutes.
May 2018	Hail	Circle	-	Public reported hail at least the size of quarters.
May 2018	Hail	Circle	-	Public reported ping pong ball size hail.
June 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Circle	-	Law enforcement relayed a report through McCone County dispatch that five main transmission lines were blown down in the area around the town of Circle.
June 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Circle	-	Public reported a newly-constructed barn destroyed and siding and roof damage to a house in the town of Circle. Time estimated by radar.
June 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Circle	-	Trained spotter reported 60 mph wind gusts.
June 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Circle	-	Trained spotter reported a barn blown down and a camper rolled over.
July 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Circle	-	Trained spotter reported 60 mph wind gusts along with pea sized hail.
July 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Circle	-	A NWS employee reported 60 mph wind gusts, a few large downed tree branches and a power outage.
July 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Circle	-	Public reported 60 mph wind gusts.
July 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Circle	-	Trained spotter estimated wind gusts of 50 to 60 mph and some tree limbs broken.
July 2014	Hail	Circle	-	Trained spotter reported golf ball-sized hail breaking vehicle windshields.
July 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Circle	-	Trained spotter reported some trees were blown down.
August 2014	Hail	Circle	-	Trained spotter reported ping pong ball-sized hail.
August 2014	Hail	Circle	-	Trained spotter reported hail that ranged from quarter-sized to golf ball-sized.
May 2014	Hail	Circle	-	Trained spotter reported quarter-sized to golf ball-sized hail which persisted for 10 to 15 minutes, followed by 10 minutes of pea-sized hail, and a total of 2 inches of rain in about 45 minutes.
June 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Circle	-	Public reported a 6 to 8 inch diameter tree branch was broken off a large tree in the town of circle.
July 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Circle	-	Public reported a 78 mph wind gust.
July 2013	Flash Flood	Circle	-	McCone County dispatch office reported flash flooding from strong thunderstorms. Water quickly flowing down the street and up over the sidewalks, approaching the doorways.
July 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Circle	-	Public reported that some metal fencing was damaged.
March 2011	Flood	Circle	-	Small creeks and streams as well as the Redwater River were out of their banks.
July 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Circle	-	Spotter reported 60 mph winds.
May 2011	Flood	Circle	-	Many gravel roads became impassible due to the extremely wet conditions.
May 2010	Hail	Circle	-	Spotter reported penny size hail.
July 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Circle	-	Small tree branches breaking out of trees in town.
July 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Circle	-	One inch diameter tree limbs broken off. Larger dead tree limbs of 6 to 8 inches broken off.
July 2010	Hail	Circle	-	Hail caused some crop damage.
July 2010	Hail	Circle	-	Hail of up to 1.00 was reported.
June 2010	Heavy Rain	Circle	-	Spotter reported heavy rain of an inch in about 40 minutes about 630 to 700 pm MST followed by 1.8 inches the remainder of the night. Two tenths of an inch fell the next day giving a total of three inches. Ponding of water occurred in the adjacent fields.
July 2009	Heavy Rain	Circle	-	A farmer reported 1.5 to 2 inches of rain fell in various gauges around the farm that caused some minor flooding across gravel roads and low lying fields.
July 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Circle	-	Large branches broken in trees.
August 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Circle	-	Pea size hail also was observed.
July 2009	Hail	Circle	-	Golfball-sized hail destroyed winter and spring wheat fields. Damage estimates were not yet available at publication time but will be added when they are ready.
August 2009	Hail	Circle	-	Heavy rain also was reported.
August 2009	Hail	Circle	-	Five minutes of hail with up to golfball-size. Strong winds also accompanied the storm.
July 2008	Hail	Circle	-	Rainfall was measured at 0.64 inches.
July 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Circle	-	The wind was accompanied by pea sized hail.
August 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Circle	-	This report was taken from the Cow Creek DOT site.
May 2006	Flash Flood	Circle	-	2 feet of water running over Highway 200. The highway was closed from mile marker 262 to 263.
June 2005	Flash Flood	Circle	-	6-8 inches of rain fell over Dinnwitte Creek and into Horse Creek from 5 pm through 7 pm. The creek went from dry to 150 feet wide. A family and grain truck driver had to be evacuated.
June 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Circle	-	60 mph wind gust reported by spotter 18 miles southeast of Fort Peck.
August 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Circle	-	80 mph wind reported by spotter 8 miles north of Circle.

Every storm recorded in McCone County

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.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Lost Creek (historical)	6.9 miles	5
Brockway	12.2 miles	6
Redwater (historical)	12.6 miles	5
Lower Summit	13.7 miles	7
Hamblin (historical)	18.6 miles	5
Watkins	19.1 miles	6
Weldon	20.9 miles	5
White (historical)	24.9 miles	7

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 Circle	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q956256	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 806926. 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.