Down in the high country of far southeast Montana, this is a very isolated camera tower, surrounded by large ranches and nothing else but the view. This is one of the flattest areas of Montana, well away from the Rockies to the west. On the west side of Highway 323, the nearest town to this tower is Ekalaka, 45 miles north. South, one will enter Wyoming before seeing any more signs of civilization. One of three cameras on this tower, this one looks down at the roadway, which today is slightly snow covered.
One of 73 highway cameras, this is part of Montana's Road Weather Information System (RWIS) which provides not only visual assessments of highways and travel conditions, but meteorological information. RWIS cameras are mounted on a tall steel truss tower adjacent to the roadway along with sensors that measure Air Temperature, Road Air Temperature, Dew Point, Relative Humidity, Wind Speed and Direction, Wind Gusts, Precipitation Intensity, Precipitation Rate, and Precipitation Accumulation. All this data is telemetered to a central location and appears on the appropriate web page in real time.
From the main RWIS page one may select the image or the data page for each of the 73 cameras. Seven of the RWIS sites are data only and one has a camera only, while the rest have both a camera and data sensors. There is also a MAP Page, which allows one to see a thumbnail image and the weather data from any of the RWIS sites by clicking on its icon on the map.
Push the buttons below for current: