00:55 Cyclone Brings Mix of Wild Weather to Northern Plains Meteorologist Ari Sarsalari talks about a large scale wind event that impacted the Northern Plains and Canada.

In the dead of summer, a time when attention-getting storms are typically tropical and the atmosphere is otherwise stagnant and steamy, a cyclone straight out of the spring and fall playbook is winding up north of the U.S.-Canada border. It whipped up a wild combination of snow showers and straight-line thunderstorm winds of 90-100 mph within the same state on Monday. The storm then produced extremely strong non-thunderstorm winds on Tuesday in the northern Plains, including gusts in excess of 70 mph in parts of two states.

The National Weather Service in Billings, Montana, summed the situation up bluntly in a tweet Tuesday: "This pattern should not happen in July."

We'll explain the science behind this rare display later – but first, let's get to the show itself.

<img class="styles__noscript__2rw2y" src="https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/montana-reports.png?v=at&w=485&h=273&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0" srcset="https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/montana-reports.png?v=at&w=485&h=273&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0 400w, https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/montana-reports.png?v=ap&w=980&h=551&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0 800w" > National Weather Service storm reports Monday included accumulating snow in Idaho and western Wyoming while severe thunderstorms broke out in north-central Wyoming. See the bottom of this article for photos of the snow.

Monday: Fire and Ice – and Tornadoes

Even as wildfires raged in parts of Idaho and Montana, snow showers broke out in mountains of both states as well as in neighboring Wyoming on Monday.

More than an inch of snow accumulated in the mountains of central Idaho and the Tetons of western Wyoming.

(MORE: Rare July Snow Falls on Rockies Ski Resorts )

Meanwhile, less than 200 miles away within the borders of Wyoming, straight-line winds from a severe thunderstorm unleashed wind gusts of 90-100 mph in north-central Wyoming . In Big Horn County, at least four camper trailers were damaged or destroyed by those straight-line winds, according to National Weather Service.

The wild weather wasn't limited to the American side of the border. In Canada, a tornado was confirmed by storm chasers as it tore a path through rural southwest Manitoba, staying on the ground without lifting for up to three hours, according to Environment Canada.

Though it damaged a bridge, power poles and possibly a farm, amazingly it missed every town in its path. Environment Canada meteorologist Mike Macdonald told the CBC that a tornado of such long duration is considered "phenomenal ... and to miss everything is basically a miracle."

<img class="styles__noscript__2rw2y" src="https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/naturetechfam-hail-twitter.png?v=at&w=485&h=273&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0" srcset="https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/naturetechfam-hail-twitter.png?v=at&w=485&h=273&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0 400w, https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/naturetechfam-hail-twitter.png?v=ap&w=980&h=551&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0 800w" > Custer, South Dakota Piles of hail linger in the yard of a home near Custer, South Dakota, on Tuesday morning some 13 hours after a hailstorm struck the area on Monday, July 27, 2015. (Credit: Nature Tech Family/Twitter)

In the States, the ground turned white in South Dakota's Black Hills late Monday not because of snow, but from hail. Hail up to 3.5 inches in diameter – larger than baseballs – was reported near Hill City, not far from Mount Rushmore National Monument.

In Custer, South Dakota, yards were still partially covered in hail Tuesday morning as temperatures plummeted into the 40s.

<img class="styles__noscript__2rw2y" src="https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/top-gusts-tue_0.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0" srcset="https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/top-gusts-tue_0.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0 400w, https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/top-gusts-tue_0.jpg?v=ap&w=980&h=551&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0 800w" > Top Wind Gusts Tuesday

Top Tuesday: Winds Top 70 mph

Monday's wild weather was associated with a developing low-pressure system – a cyclone – which continued to strengthen Tuesday as it moved east over the southern part of the Canadian Prairies, just north of Montana.

This cyclone is unusually strong for a non-tropical system in the middle of summer, and as a result it's kicked up a large area of strong winds more typical of the fall, winter and spring months.

A few wind gusts of 70 mph were reported in central and northwest North Dakota, including a 76 mph gust near Crosby early Tuesday evening. At the time of that wind gust, sustained winds were an incredible 56 mph. A separate gust to 76 mph was measured in Garrison later in the evening, and Moffit (southeast of Bismarck) clocked a 71-mph gust. Gusts in excess of 60 mph were clocked in Mandan (69 mph), Dickinson (68 mph), Tioga (67 mph) and Bismarck (67 mph).

A band of rain showers associated with the cyclone appeared to be contributing to the exceptionally high winds, as the falling rain helped transfer momentum from the higher winds aloft down to ground level.

In eastern Montana, numerous locations have reported wind gusts of 50 to just over 75 mph. One location in northeast Montana near Comertown reported sustained winds of 60 mph with a gust to 76 mph on Tuesday evening . Other top gusts included 71 mph near Navajo.

High winds have also gusted over 60 mph in western South Dakota, including top gusts of 67 mph near Ludlow and Lemmon.

Across the border, winds also howled across the prairies of Sasketchwan, yielding top gusts of 64 mph in the provincial capital, Regina, as well as in Estevan.

The gusty winds were accompanied by cool temperatures for late-July standards, with some areas only in the 50s and 60s Tuesday afternoon.

Wednesday: Winds Linger in the Upper Midwest

Impacts from the storm system continued on Wednesday in the Upper Midwest and Northern Plains, mainly in the form of gusty winds. Wind gusts over 30 mph were common, with some areas topping 40 mph.

The strong winds also prompted gale warnings on the western end of Lake Superior. The warning bulletin said a few waves as high as 14 feet were possible, and in some places 10-foot waves will be fairly common for a few hours.

As with the strong winds on land, gales on Lake Superior are not typical for July. According to Iowa State University's database of NWS bulletins, there haven't been any gale warnings on the western part of Lake Superior during the month of July in the past six years (2009 through 2014) and possibly even longer.

The Science Behind the Cyclone

A strong punch of wind energy, well anticipated by computer forecast models many days in advance, has been zipping east across the northwestern U.S. and southwest Canada in the upper levels of the atmosphere. As is usually the case, low pressure has spun up at ground level thanks to the interaction between that wind corridor and the sharp elevation drop from the Rockies to the Plains.

This combination regularly gives rise to what meteorologists call "lee cyclogenesis" – the development of low pressure downwind (i.e., east) of the Front Range of the Rockies. These low-pressure systems can bring very strong winds to the Front Range and adjacent High Plains, and can also trigger major severe weather outbreaks farther east as they encounter moist air drawn north from the Gulf of Mexico.

The thing is, strong lee cyclogenesis doesn't usually happen in the middle of summer. That's because winds in the upper atmosphere – even in that wavy corridor of west-to-east wind we call the "jet stream" – are usually near their weakest point this time of year and are often well north of the international border.

As you probably know from experience, July is not known as a typically windy month over most of the country, except during severe thunderstorms and landfalling tropical cyclones.

This storm is an exception to that norm. Large-scale winds are driven by pressure differences in the atmosphere, and this unseasonably strong low pressure is bringing strong winds over an unusually large area.

The National Weather Service in Billings said in a tweet Tuesday morning that Tuesday could end up being the "windiest July day ever" in Billings , presumably based on the day's average wind speed.

MORE ON WEATHER.COM: Snow in Montana and Wyoming, July 27, 2015