Name: Heavy Snow in Idaho, December 1 to 3, 2001
Start: 2001-12-01T11:00
End: 2001-12-03T02:00
Location: Idaho

Where it happened

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.

Tornadoes
Tropical storms and surge
Floods
Wind
Hail
Winter weather
Heat and drought
Cold
Fire, smoke and dust
Marine and coastal
Other

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The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: None recorded
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 1

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.

What forecasters said that day

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 Boise, ID wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Dec 1, 11:00 AM MST, 0 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Dec 1, 11:00 AM MST, 0 minutes before

SOUTHWEST IDAHO/SOUTHEAST OREGON AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BOISE IDAHO
1100 AM MST SAT DEC 01 2001

ZONES UPDATES ALREADY OUT.  LITTLE MORE WARM AIR WORKING IN FROM THE
SOUTH COMBINED WITH BETTER COLD POOL ALOFT ALONG ORE/WASH COAST
MAKING FOR A BIT STRONGER SYSTEM THIS MORNING AND AFTERNOON.  BAND
OF HEAVY SNOW THROUGH NE PARTS OF CWFA TIL 4 PM FOR 4-7 NEW SNOW
EARLY THIS AFTERNOON.  SE TO SW WINDS 30-40 MPH ACROSS SE OREGON AND
ALIGNING WELL WITH TREASURE VALLEY FOR WIND ADVY THIS
AFTERNOON/EARLY EVENING - MOUNTAIN HOME GUSTS 45 MPH WITH BLOWING
SNOW AND 32F WHILE BOISE IS UP TO 37F ALREADY.  COLD POOL WRN OREGON
WITH THUNDER LATE THIS MORNING SHIFTS ENE JUST BRUSHING NRN BKE
COUNTY THIS EVENING MAY BRING A BURST OF SNOW SHOWER ACTIVITY SO
ALTHOUGH SNOW DECREASING EARLY THIS AFTN THERE, COULD SEE ANOTHER
GOOD SHOT AND THUS WILL KEEP UP S/BS ADVY INSTEAD OF CHANGING TO
WIND ADVY OR DROPPING ALTOGHTER.  SFC PRES GRAD DECREASING SLIGHTLY
BUT H7 WINDS INCREASE THROUGH 4PM.

NEXT PAC WX SYS DIGGING ESE TO 40N140W LATE THIS AM EXPECTED TO
BRING LIGHT SNOW NEAR NV BORDER IN SE OREGON BY SUNDAY MORNING THEN
VALLEY RAIN AND MOUNTAIN SNOWS THROUGHOUT SW IDAHO/SE OREGON
SUNDAY.  UPPER TROF SHIFTS THROUGH SUNDAY NIGHT BUT WITH ANOTHER
UPPER TROF ON ITS HEELS FOR MONDAY MORNING PASSAGE EXPECT SNOW IN
THE MTNS AND SCT SNOW SHOWERS VALLEYS.  NO ADDITIONAL CHGS.

.BOI...SNOW AND BLOWING SNOW ADVISORY CONTINUED TODAY FOR BAKER
       COUNTY (ORE ZN 62).
       WIND ADVISORY TREASURE VALLEY (OR64/ID12-14) TIL 6PM.
       SNOW ADVISORY BOISE/CENTRAL MTNS TIL 4PM (IDZ11/13).

VM

The radar

The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 heavy snow. Local standard time, as filed.

Heavy Snow, Boise Mountains

When: December 1, 11:00 AM MST to December 3, 2:00 AM MST
Where: Boise Mountains forecast zone
Reported by: OTHER FEDERAL AGENCY
Coordinates: 43.602, -115.335 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Two closely-spaced Pacific storms dropped up to 18 inches of snow in the Boise Mountains over a 48 hour period. Heaviest snowfall was above 6000 feet in elevation. The heavy, wet snow snapped hundreds of tree limbs and brought down power lines serving 1200 homes from Garden Valley to Lowman. An accumulation of snow collapsed a carport in Terrace Lakes.

What these are

Heavy Snow: Snowfall reaching the local warning threshold without the other hazards of a winter storm.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

More

Every storm in Idaho in 2001 Every state in 2001 This day in weather history Warnings in Idaho, December 2001

Sources

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: 5276205.