1 high wind, as filed by the National Weather Service.
Every event with a place to put it; 1 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Denver/Boulder, CO wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Dec 28, 3:55 AM MST, 3 hours 5 minutes earlier.
NORTHEAST AND NORTH CENTRAL COLORADO AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DENVER COLORADO
355 AM MST FRI DEC 28 2001
SHORT TERM DISCUSSION: NEW MM5 CONTINUES TO SHOW VERY STRONG WINDS
ON HIGHER EAST SLOPES OF CONTINENTAL DIVIDE THROUGH TODAY...AND FOR
THAT REASON WILL LEAVE HIGH WIND WARNING GOING THROUGH THE MORNING.
DECISION TO NOT ISSUE THE HIGH WIND WARNING FOR THE MOUNTAINS AND
PLAINS WAS A GOOD ONE...AS MECHANISMS NOT IN PLACE TO BRING VERY
HIGH WINDS TO LOWER FOOTHILLS...AND STRONGEST WINDS ARE JUST EAST OF
THE DIVIDE. LATEST SCAN SHOWED RED FEATHER LAKES GUSTING TO 30
MPH...AND ROCKY FLATS GUSTING TO 42 MPH. WINDS WILL SLOWLY DECREASE
TONIGHT.
MODELS SHOW SYSTEM ENTERING THE STATE HAS A FAIRLY DEEP MOISTURE...
COMBINED WITH 700 MB WINDS SHOULD SEE GOOD OROGRAPHICS TODAY AND
TONIGHT. SNOW MODEL YIELDED 2 TO 6 INCHES...SO WILL ISSUE A SNOW
AND BLOWING SNOW ADVISORY UNTIL MIDNIGHT TONIGHT. DO NOT THINK THIS
IS NEEDED EVERYWHERE...BUT CONDITIONS SHOULD WARRANT THE ADVISORY IN
THE PASSES SUCH AS BERTHOUD...LOVELAND...AND NEAR THE EISENHOWER
TUNNEL.
ON THE PLAINS...A SURGE DOES COME DOWN TONIGHT...AND MODELS SHOW A
PERIOD OF UPSLOPE...AFTER 00Z TONIGHT...BUT MOISTURE IS LIMITED. AS
PREVIOUS SHIFTS HAVE MENTIONED...AND AS 06Z AVN AND MM5 SUGGEST...
BEST PCPN WILL PROBABLY OCCUR ALIGNED WITH THE JET IN NW TO SE CSI
BANDS THAT ARE MOST LIKELY TO OCCUR FROM LARIMER TO WASHINGTON AND
LINCOLN COUNTIES. HAVE GONE WITH LOWER POPS TO THE SOUTH AND EAST
OF THAT LINE. RTG
LONG TERM DISCUSSION: SEE LITTLE CHANGE IN THE UPR FLOW PATTERN
NEXT FEW DAYS WITH DEEP TROUGH LINGERING OVER THE MID-WEST AND GREAT
LAKES STATES...AND WITH UPR RIDGE OVER THE WEST COAST STATES. LOW
AMPLITUDE SHRTWAVE TROF ASSOCIATED WITH 100+KT JET MAX SLIDES EAST
OF STATE BY 12Z/SAT. IN ITS WAKE MID AND UPR LVLS DRY OUT AND
STABILIZE...AND WEAK/SHALLOW UPSLOPE FLOW ACRS THE NERN CO PLAINS
BECOMES S-SELY AND/OR LGT AND VARIABLE DURING THE DAY SATURDAY. LOW
LVL MOISTURE HANGS AROUND THE URBAN CORRIDOR DURING THE MRNG
HRS...SO COULD SEE A FEW SNOW FLURRIES EARLY. THEN COLD AIR SLOWLY
FLUSHES OUT DURING THE AFTERNOON AS WLY FLOW WORKS DOWN OFF THE
FRONT RANGE. AS YOU WOULD EXPECT SHOULD SEE WARMEST TEMPS UP
AGAINST FTHLS. ON SUNDAY MODELS SHOW A SOMEWHAT STRONGER SHRTWAVE
TROUGH MOVING DOWN OFF THE WEST COAST RIDGE AND ACROSS COLORADO
DURING THE DAY SUNDAY. AVN...NOGAPS...MRF...CANADIAN AND ECMWF
MODELS DIFFER A BIT ON ITS ARRIVAL TIME WITH MRF SLOWEST OF THE
BUNCH. OVERALL...MODELS HAVE SHORTWAVE PASSING OVER OUR CWFA AROUND
MIDDAY SUNDAY. PRIOR TO ITS ARRIVAL SFC GRIDS SHOW COLD NORTHERN
PLAINS AIR SURGING BACK INTO NERN COLORADO LATE SATURDAY NIGHT
PUSHED ALONG BY 1034 MB SFC HIGH DROPPING SEWRD OUT OF MONTANA. DO
NOT SEE MUCH MOISTURE AROUND UNTIL ARRIVE OF UPR TROUGH AND UPWARD
QG FORCING. SNOW/PCPN GRIDS SHOW BULK OF PRECIPITATION FALLING OVER
THE MTNS AND ACRS SERN COLORADO SUNDAY AFTERNOON AND EVENING. AVN
HAS OUR CWFA ON NORTHERN EDGE OF PRECIPITATION AT THIS TIME. UPWARDS
OF 2-3 INCH ACCUMULATIONS ARE PROGD ALONG THE MONUMENT RIDGE BY
06Z/MON...WITH HIGHER AMTS IN THE MTN ZONES. NEW MOS TEMPS FOR
SUNDAY LOOK SOME 3-6 DEGS LOWER THAN TEMPS ON PREVIOUS GUIDANCE.
PREFER WARMER TEMPS DUE TO PRE-TROUGH WARMING AND DVLPMNT OF SLY LOW
LVL FLOW ON ERN PLAINS DURING MORNING HRS. COULD SEE SNOWFALL
BEGINNING IN THE MTNS AS ERLY AS LATE SATURDAY NIGHT...AND BY AROUND
MIDDAY SUNDAY ON THE PLAINS. SINCE TIMING AND INTENSITY ALWAYS A
REAL CHALLENGE THAT FAR OUT...WILL STICK WITH SCATTERED POPS ALREADY
MENTIONED IN THE FCST FOR BOTH THE MTNS AND PLAINS.
LOOKING AHEAD MONDAY THROUGH THURSDAY...AIRMASS APPEARS TO DRY OUT
AND WARM SOME MONDAY IN THE WAKE OF SUNDAYS TROUGH/FRONTAL
PASSAGE. WARMUP SHORT-LIVED AS MEDIUM RANGE MODELS NOW SHOW COLD
GREAT LAKES TROUGH BULGING WESTWARD ACRS THE NRN GREAT PLAINS AND
INTO NERN COLORADO BY MONDAY EVENING. AVN SFC/BNDRY LYR WND AND
PRES FIELDS SHOW A STRONG CANADIAN COLD FRONT SLIDING SWRD THROUGH
NERN COLORADO NEW YEARS EVE EVENING...ABOUT THE SAME TIME A MID-LVL
SHRTWAVE TROUGH PASSES OVERHEAD. ASSUMING ALL THIS COMES
TOGETHER...COULD BE A BITTER COLD AND SLIPPERY EVENING FOR NEW YEAR
REVELERS. UNSEASONABLY COLD AIR AND THE PSBLY OF LGT SNOWFALL HANGS
AROUND NEW YEARS DAY...ONLY TO FLUSHED OUT WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY
BY W/NWLY FLOW AS WARM/DRY UPR RIDGE MOVES OVER THE STATE.
BAKER
.DEN...HIGH WIND WARNING FOOTHILLS THIS MORNING...ZNS 35..36.
SNOW AND BLOWING SNOW ADVISORY MOUNTAINS UNTIL MIDNIGHT...
ZNS 31..33..34The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 high wind. Local standard time, as filed.
A wind gust to 86 mph (75 kts) was recorded 1 mile south of Fritz Peak.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Colorado in 2001Every state in 2001This day in weather historyWarnings in Colorado, December 2001
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5275113.