diff --git a/dev-tools/scripts/smokeTestRelease.py b/dev-tools/scripts/smokeTestRelease.py
index 2e38e9b4144..2b1ff193e4d 100644
--- a/dev-tools/scripts/smokeTestRelease.py
+++ b/dev-tools/scripts/smokeTestRelease.py
@@ -431,6 +431,7 @@ reChangesSectionHREF = re.compile('<a id="(.*?)".*?>(.*?)</a>', re.IGNORECASE)
 reUnderbarNotDashHTML = re.compile(r'<li>(\s*(LUCENE|SOLR)_\d\d\d\d+)')
 reUnderbarNotDashTXT = re.compile(r'\s+((LUCENE|SOLR)_\d\d\d\d+)', re.MULTILINE)
 def checkChangesContent(s, version, name, project, isHTML):
+  currentVersionTuple = versionToTuple(version, name)
 
   if isHTML and s.find('Release %s' % version) == -1:
     raise RuntimeError('did not see "Release %s" in %s' % (version, name))
@@ -459,7 +460,8 @@ def checkChangesContent(s, version, name, project, isHTML):
         raise RuntimeError('did not see "%s" in %s' % (sub, name))
 
   if isHTML:
-    # Make sure a section only appears once under each release:
+    # Make sure that a section only appears once under each release,
+    # and that each release is not greater than the current version
     seenIDs = set()
     seenText = set()
 
@@ -468,6 +470,9 @@ def checkChangesContent(s, version, name, project, isHTML):
       if text.lower().startswith('release '):
         release = text[8:].strip()
         seenText.clear()
+        releaseTuple = versionToTuple(release, name)
+        if releaseTuple > currentVersionTuple:
+          raise RuntimeError('Future release %s is greater than %s in %s' % (release, version, name))
       if id in seenIDs:
         raise RuntimeError('%s has duplicate section "%s" under release "%s"' % (name, text, release))
       seenIDs.add(id)
@@ -475,6 +480,27 @@ def checkChangesContent(s, version, name, project, isHTML):
         raise RuntimeError('%s has duplicate section "%s" under release "%s"' % (name, text, release))
       seenText.add(text)
 
+
+reVersion = re.compile(r'(\d+)\.(\d+)(?:\.(\d+))?\s*(-alpha|-beta|final|RC\d+)?\s*(?:\[.*\])?', re.IGNORECASE)
+def versionToTuple(version, name):
+  versionMatch = reVersion.match(version)
+  if versionMatch is None:
+    raise RuntimeError('Version %s in %s cannot be parsed' % (version, name))
+  versionTuple = versionMatch.groups()
+  while versionTuple[-1] is None or versionTuple[-1] == '':
+    versionTuple = versionTuple[:-1]
+  if versionTuple[-1].lower() == '-alpha':
+    versionTuple = versionTuple[:-1] + ('0',)
+  elif versionTuple[-1].lower() == '-beta':
+    versionTuple = versionTuple[:-1] + ('1',)
+  elif versionTuple[-1].lower() == 'final':
+    versionTuple = versionTuple[:-2] + ('100',)
+  elif versionTuple[-1].lower()[:2] == 'rc':
+    versionTuple = versionTuple[:-2] + (versionTuple[-1][2:],)
+  print('%s: %s' % (version, versionTuple))
+  return versionTuple
+
+
 reUnixPath = re.compile(r'\b[a-zA-Z_]+=(?:"(?:\\"|[^"])*"' + '|(?:\\\\.|[^"\'\\s])*' + r"|'(?:\\'|[^'])*')" \
                         + r'|(/(?:\\.|[^"\'\s])*)' \
                         + r'|("/(?:\\.|[^"])*")'   \