A potent winter storm and associated strong cold front swept through western Colorado, depositing 6 to 12 inches of snow mainly in the northern mountains. The heaviest amount reported was 20 inches at Dry Lake in the Park Range.
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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 episode as NWS GJT wrote it up.
A potent winter storm and associated strong cold front swept through western Colorado, depositing 6 to 12 inches of snow mainly in the northern mountains. The heaviest amount reported was 20 inches at Dry Lake in the Park Range. In addition, wind gusts to 50 mph accompanied the storm causing considerable blowing and drifting snow and closed Rabbit Ears Pass for a period of time. In the San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado, an automated wind sensor clocked wind gusts as high as 80 mph over Red Mountain Pass.
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 Grand Junction, CO wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Feb 8, 2:44 AM MST, 4 hours 16 minutes earlier.
WESTERN COLORADO & EASTERN UTAH AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GRAND JUNCTION CO
244 AM MST FRI FEB 8 2002
IMPRESSIVE S/W TROUGH CURRENTLY MOVING INTO IDAHO WITH SEVERAL
LIGHTNING STRIKES SEEN ASSOCIATED WITH SHARP BAROCLINIC ZONE...NOW
EXTENDING FROM CENTRAL IDAHO TO NORTH-CENTRAL NEVADA. CALM CONDITIONS
ACROSS CWA THIS MORNING...BUT THINGS WILL CHANGE IN A HURRY TODAY.
FORECAST...WAA SOUTHWEST FLOW STRENGTHENS THIS MORNING AHEAD OF
APPROACHING SYSTEM AND AIRMASS WILL BEGIN TO SATURATE. WV IMAGERY
INDICATES PIECE OF UPR LVL ENERGY MOVING INTO WRN UTAH...SLIDING
ACROSS WRN CO BY 15Z. MESO-ETA GENERATES LIGHT QPF DURING THIS TIME
ACROSS SRN MTNS...BUT BELIEVE AIRMASS IS TOO DRY FOR PRECIP THIS
EARLY. FOCUS THROUGH TONIGHT WILL BE OVER THE NRN AND CENTRAL MTNS OF
WRN CO. AS SFC FRONT AND UPR LVL DYNAMICS TRANSLATE EAST...SYSTEM
WILL ACTUALLY AMPLIFY. SNOW WILL DEVELOP AND SPREAD ACROSS THIS
AREA AFTER 18Z. CONVECTIVE PROPERTIES EXIST (H7-5 LAPSE RATES 8.0
TO 8.5 C/KM) TO SEE LOCALLY HIGHER AMOUNTS WITHIN CONVECTIVE BANDS.
LF EXIT REGION OF 120KT JET CORE WILL ALSO HELP TO ENHANCE SNOWFALL
RATES. H7 FLOW WILL BECOME WEST 30-40KTS...THEN SHIFT NW LATE THIS
AFTN. SNOW THEN LIKELY TO SPILL ACROSS MOUNTAINS AROUND VAIL...
PERSISTING THROUGH TONIGHT. THERE IS THE POTENTIAL FOR SNOW TO OCCUR
AS FAR SOUTH AS THE SAN JUAN MTNS AROUND OURAY IN UNSTABLE NW FLOW.
MOISTURE REMAINS A QUESTION DOWN THERE...BUT COLD AIR PLUNGING SOUTH
TODAY AND TONIGHT ENOUGH TO EVENTUALLY SATURATE LOW LEVELS. WILL
POST SNOW AND BLOWING SNOW ADVISORY FOR NORTH-CENTRAL MTNS OF
COLORADO BEGINNING THIS AFTERNOON THROUGH TONIGHT WITH GENERAL 4-8
INCHES OF SNOW BY SAT MORNING...FROM THE PARK AND GORE RANGE DOWN TO
THE CENTRAL ROCKIES WEST OF THE DIVIDE.
ELSEWHERE...SFC LOW DEVELOPS OVER ERN MT AND STRENGTHENS AS IT MOVES
SOUTHEAST INTO SOUTH DAKOTA. SUFFICIENT LOW LEVEL CONVG FROM TRAILING
COLD FRONT WILL BRING SHOT OF SNOW TO NW PLATEAU REGION OF COLORADO
THIS AFTERNOON...LATER INTO THE CENTRAL HIGH VALLEYS OF COLORADO.
WINDY CONDITIONS WILL PRECEDE AND FOLLOW THE FRONTAL BOUNDARY. SCT
-SHSN COULD LINGER ACROSS THE NRN/CENTRAL MTNS SAT MORNING WITHIN
DOMINANT NW FLOW...BUT HIGH PRESSURE WILL SETTLE IN BY SAT NIGHT...
CLEARING THINGS OUT. THIS WILL RESULT IN A VERY COLD MORNING SUNDAY.
NADLER.83
EXTENDED (MON-THU).. THE CHANCES OF PRECIPITATION AROUND MIDWEEK HAS
BEEN GREATLY DIMINISHED PER THE LATEST MODEL GUIDANCE. LATEST MRF
AND THE ECMWF/UKMET INDICATE A CLOSED LOW FORMING SOMEWHERE WEST OF
THE CALIFORNIA COAST WITH THE MAIN WESTERLIES FARTHER NORTH. THAT
LEAVES WESTERN COLORADO IN A RELATIVELY LIGHT FLOW PATTERN AND THE
AIR MASS STABLE. SINCE THE MEDIUM RANGE MODELS SHOW GENERAL
CONSENSUS.. WILL DROP ANY MENTION OF PRECIPITATION AT THIS TIME.
PF
WESTERN COLORADO AND EASTERN UTAH EMERGENCY MANAGERS SHOULD EXERCISE
A MODERATE TO HIGH LEVEL OF WEATHER AWARENESS TODAY AND TONIGHT FOR
SNOW AND STRONG WINDS OVER THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL MOUNTAINS.
.GJT...SNOW AND BLOWING SNOW ADVISORY THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT
COZN 4/10/13.The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
4 winter storm. Local standard time, as filed.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Colorado in 2002Every state in 2002This day in weather historyWarnings in Colorado, February 2002
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: 5283806, 5283803, 5283804, 5283805.