Terry, Montana

8 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1980. It stands in the Terry South census division. It lies in ZIP code area 59349. The Survey maps it on the Terry quadrangle. 562 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 2,251 feet above sea level.

Research this city

Terry within Prairie County

On record in Terry

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 2 records

Grandey Elementary Schoollisted 1978
Powder River Bridgelisted 2010

Population over time

2 figures

Terry fell from 605 to 562 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	605
2020	562	-43 (-7%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 surveys from 8 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.

1953 USGS Miles City quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
1957 USGS Miles City quadrangle1:250000
1958 USGS Miles City quadrangle1:250000
1972 USGS Terry quadrangle1:24000
1980 USGS Terry quadrangle1:100000

Fires near this place

8 since 2005

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 8 fires within 5 miles of Terry between 2005 and 2020, burning about 671 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
Equipment and vehicle use	6
Railroad operations and maintenance	1
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
19 September 2005	Equipment and vehicle use	7.0 acres	Miles City Field Office	PRAIRIE
4 August 2017	Equipment and vehicle use	50 acres	Eastern Land Office	CONNS
4 August 2017	Equipment and vehicle use	3.0 acres	Eastern Land Office	TERRY
7 July 2012	Equipment and vehicle use	5.0 acres	Miles City Field Office	MILES
24 July 2007	Natural	126 acres	Miles City Field Office	COAL CREEK SOUTH
12 July 2015	Equipment and vehicle use	464 acres	Miles City Field Office	MM 172
9 June 2017	Railroad operations and maintenance	16 acres	Eastern Land Office	TOMASON RAIL
26 June 2020	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Prairie County	CHERRY CREEK - PRAIRIE

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Prairie County

Storms near this place

60 of 124 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Terry in 124 storm reports between 1993 and 2025: 65 hail, 50 thunderstorm wind, 6 flash flood, 1 heavy rain. 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
June 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Terry	$145,000	Damaging thunderstorm winds blew over a pivot sprinkler. The strong wind destoyed one machine shed. There were multiple reports of structural damage to occupied and unoccupied structures. A couple of cars were damaged from fallen tree limbs.
June 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Terry	$120,000	A severe thunderstorm moved into southern Prairie county and raced off to the northeast at 50 mph. As the storm first entered the county it produced wind damage 12 miles southwest of Terry at 5:12 pm. A National Weather employee reported a pole barn was significantly damaged at a family members home. The poles were pulled right out of the ground. A shed was also destroyed on the property. As the storm continued to track off to the northeast it produced wind gusts in excess of 80 mph. At 5:30 pm an 88 mph wind gust was measured in Terry. Numerous tree branches were downed in the area, and many homes had minor roof damage.
May 2011	Tornado (EF1)	Terry	$75,000	At approximately 8:27pm on May 20, a tornado struck a ranch 8 miles south of Terry on 10 Mile Road. The tornado was observed by a resident of the house on the ranch. The house itself received no damage, though it was about 150 feet away from observed damage. Significant damage occurred to 4 outbuildings on the ranch. There were no injuries and the horses on the ranch were uninjured as they were out in pasture at the time of the tornado. The damage path was about 500 feet and the width was 200 feet. Based on the damage, the wind speed was determined to be 90 mph or a low end EF-1 tornado.
July 1997	Flash Flood	Terry	$50,000	Six inches of rain in less than 4 hours caused flash flooding. The town of Terry was inundated. Both Terry and Fallon reported extensive street flooding. A section of Interstate 90 by Terry had water running across it. Several washouts were reported on gravel county roads.
August 1993	Thunderstorm Wind	Terry	$50,000	Trees were blown down and a trailer was blown over. Heavy rain fell causing Cherry Creek to run over the road north of Terry.
June 2005	Flash Flood	Terry	$30,000	Water flowed over Highway 253 northwest of Terry, and caused damage to the highway.
July 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Terry	$6,000	The wind blew down 6 power poles between Terry and Fallon.
April 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Terry	$5,000	A thunderstorm was dying and the outflow winds from it damaged a 14' by 44' hog shed and pushed it 75 feet from its slab. The nearest measured wind was at the Miles City Airport with a gust of 48 mph. Other buildings in the area were not damaged at all and no other reports of severe weather occurred in the area.
June 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Terry	$5,000	A small grain bin was tossed into a grain field and destroyed.
August 1993	Thunderstorm Wind	Terry	$5,000	no account filed
July 2008	Hail	Terry	$1,000	Some windows were broken.
July 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Terry	-	Winds estimated to be at least 60 mph based on video posted to social media and tree limb damage reported by public.
July 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Terry	-	County Emergency management shared multiple damage reports from the town of Terry, including downed branches from multiple trees, a downed main power line causing a power outage, a peeled tin roof at the local baseball field. Time is estimated. Wind speed estimated at 65 mph.
July 2025	Hail	Terry	-	Trained spotter reported hail up to the size of quarters and heavy rain.
July 2025	Hail	Terry	-	Public reported quarter size hail through the mPING system.
June 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Terry	-	Prairie County DES estimated thunderstorm wind gusts of 60 mph.
June 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Terry	-	Public reported, via Facebook, an estimated 60 mph thunderstorm wind gust.
July 2022	Hail	Terry	-	Public reported, via Facebook, hail up to the size of quarters.
July 2022	Hail	Terry	-	A trained spotter reported, via Facebook, hail up to the size of quarters.
July 2019	Flash Flood	Terry	-	Prairie County DES Coordinator reported water over I-94 near Terry.
July 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Terry	-	Prairie County DES Coordinator reported a large tree limb blow down. Wind gust speed estimated.
July 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Terry	-	Storm chaser reported gas station awning torn off and blown 100 to 200 feet away into a nearby field, a billboard blown in and hanging from its posts, and another small structure with roof damage. Wind gust speed estimated.
July 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Terry	-	Public reported, via social media, a tree blown down on a house in Terry.
July 2019	Hail	Terry	-	Storm chaser reported hail up to the size of half dollars.
July 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Terry	-	Storm chaser reported extensive damage in Terry and within 2 miles of Terry.
August 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Terry	-	Prairie County dispatch reported that high winds damaged a power line, starting a small grass fire.
June 2015	Flash Flood	Terry	-	Prairie County Fire Chief reported an inch of rain in only 15 minutes, flooded streets, sidewalks, and basements in the City of Terry, and flooding across Montana Interstate 94 near Sand Creek and Conns Coulee. When storms finally ended after 2:00 am local time, rainfall totals of 5 to 6 inches were common.
May 2013	Funnel Cloud	Terry	-	A cold air funnel was reported by the county Disaster and Emergency Services Coordinator over the town of Terry, and it was further verified with several photographs. It only lasted a few minutes before dissipating.
July 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Terry	-	Trained spotter and Law Enforcement reported that the old drive-in theater screen in Terry was mostly destroyed, tin structures sustained roof damage, and road signs were ripped off their poles.
June 2012	Hail	Terry	-	A trained spotter reported golf ball hail about 4 miles east-southeast of Terry in Prairie County.
August 2012	Hail	Terry	-	Public reported mainly pea-sized hail mixed with some penny-sized stones.
July 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Terry	-	A semi-truck at mile marker 157 on the interstate was blown over. The trailer was empty. DES confirmed it was straight line winds.
June 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Terry	-	Spotter reported large trees bending in the strong winds.
June 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Terry	-	At 1925 MST in Terry, thunderstorm wind gusts broke large tree limbs and was accompanied by heavy rain. At 1950 MST in Fallon, thunderstorm wind gusts also broke more tree limbs.
July 2008	Hail	Terry	-	A wind gust was measured at 53 mph.
August 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Terry	-	This wind gust occurred well behind the leading edge of the storm.
May 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Terry	-	Mature pine trees were bending over in the wind.
June 2007	Flash Flood	Terry	-	Interstate 94 was under a foot of water along the Prairie/Custer County border.
July 2007	Hail	Terry	-	Dime to nickel size hail covered the ground between Terry and Fallon.
June 2006	Hail	Terry	-	A severe thunderstorm moved into southern Prairie county and developed into a line of thunderstorms as it raced off to the northeast at around 50 mph. The thunderstorms produced damage from about 12 miles southwest of Terry to 1 mile north of Terry. There were numerous reports of golfball sized hail. The largest hail reports were from Terry to 1 mile north of Terry.
May 2005	Hail	Terry	-	Penny sized hail covered the ground.
May 2005	Heavy Rain	Terry	-	A heavy downpour which produced just over 8 tenths of an inch of rain in less than an hour, produced localized flooding ditches due to the overwhelming of the storm drains.
June 2005	Hail	Terry	-	Multiple reports of crop damage and structures damaged from hail.
June 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Terry	-	60 mph wind reported at Big Sheep RAWS.
June 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Terry	-	60 mph wind toppled 12 inch diameter pine tree at Terry.
July 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Terry	-	60 mph wind gust reported by spotter 20 miles northwest of Terry.
August 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Terry	-	69 mph wind reported at Big Sheep RAWS.
August 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Terry	-	80 mph wind reported by spotter 35 miles northwest of Terry.
August 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Terry	-	58 mph wind reported at Big Sheep RAWS.
July 2001	Hail	Terry	-	Some crop damage to wheat fields. Damage was from 30 to 60 percent of the crop over several hundred acres.
July 2000	Flash Flood	Terry	-	Water running down city streets 3-4 inches deep.
August 1995	Hail	Terry	-	Tennis ball-size hail damaged a satellite dish.
June 2011	Hail	Terry	-	no account filed
July 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Terry	-	no account filed
September 2009	Hail	Terry	-	no account filed
June 2008	Hail	Terry	-	no account filed
June 2008	Hail	Terry	-	no account filed
July 2008	Hail	Terry	-	no account filed
August 2008	Hail	Terry	-	no account filed
August 2008	Hail	Terry	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Prairie 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
Calypso	6.0 miles	8
Bluffport	7.9 miles	9
Blatchford	9.2 miles	8
Fallon	10.6 miles	10
Saugus	11.8 miles	8
Zero	12.7 miles	8
Benz	13.6 miles	8
Sutherland (historical)	14.9 miles	8

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 Terry	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q192293	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 777474. 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.