1 tornado, as filed by the National Weather Service.
Every event with a place to put it. 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 Jul 23, 2:21 PM MST, 19 minutes earlier.
NORTHEAST AND NORTH CENTRAL COLORADO AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DENVER COLORADO
320 PM MDT TUE JUL 23 2002
DISCUSSION: A WAVE OF SLOW MOVING SHOWERS IS PRESENTLY MOVING OUT
OF THE MTNS. AS THE SHOWERS MOVE OVER THE PLAINS...THEY SHOULD
GRADUALLY DIMINISH. AMS ON THE PLAINS HAS MORE STABILITY THAN WHAT
IS COMING OUT OF THE MTNS...BUT SLY/SELY FLOW ACRS THE PLAINS WL
ALLOW FOR SOME LOW LVL MSTR CONVERGENCE. THIS WILL BE THE MAIN
ELEMENT TO KEEP THE SHOWER ACTIVITY GOING. AT UPR LVLS...AN
ANTI-CYCLONE IS CENTERED OVR THE 4-CRNRS RGN WITH AN APPARENT SHORT
WAVE EMBEDDED IN THE FLOW OVR NERN UT. THIS COULD KEEP SHOWER
ACTIVITY OVR THE MTNS GOING UNTIL ARND MIDNITE.
FOR TOMORROW...THE WARM AIR ASSOCD WITH THE ANTI-CYCLONE WILL BE OVR
THE FCST AREA...BUT IT APPEARS A FAIR AMNT OF MID-LVL MSTR WL ALSO
BE PRESENT. SOUNDINGS FM THE ETA SHOW QUITE DRY AIR FM THE SFC UP
THRU ABT 500 MB. MODEL MAY BE OVERDOING THE LOW LVL DRYING...BUT
WITH THE SUBSIDENCE OF THE ANTI-CYCLONE IN PLACE...MAIN CONVECTIVE
DVLPMNT SHOULD BE LIMITED TO THE MTNS AND FTHLS. ISOLD SHOWERS WILL
DRIFT EWD THRU THE EVENING...BUT MEASURABLE PCPN MAY BE SPARSE. THE
MAIN THING ABT WEDS FCST IS GOING TO BE THE RETURN OF WARM TEMPS
WITH LOW AND MID 90S COMMON ACRS THE PLAINS.
FOR THURSDAY...AVN AND ETA ADVERTISE ANOTHER SHORT WAVE TRAVERSING
ACRS THE FCST AREA AS THE UPR RIDGE FLATTENS AND FLOW ALOFT
INCREASES SLIGHTLY. THE FLATTENED RIDGE IS ALSO LIKELY TO CONTAIN
ENOUGH MID-LVL MSTR FOR AFTN AND EVENING SHOWERS TO DVLP AGAIN.
THROUGH THE EXTENDED PTN OF THE FCST...WEAK ZONAL FLOW ARND THE
FLATTENED UPR RDG IS FCST TO CONTINUE...WITH TEMPS ARND SEASONAL
VALUES AND A SLIGHT CHANCE OF SHOWERS EACH AFTN AND EVENING.
KDBY
.DEN...NONE.COZ030>051-232000- HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK FOR NORTHEAST AND NORTH CENTRAL COLORADO NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DENVER COLORADO 1000 AM MDT TUE JUL 23 2002 THIS OUTLOOK PERTAINS TO THE FOLLOWING COLORADO COUNTIES ADAMS ARAPAHOE BOULDER BROOMFIELD CLEAR CREEK DENVER DOUGLAS ELBERT GILPIN GRAND JACKSON JEFFERSON LARIMER LINCOLN LOGAN MORGAN PARK PHILLIPS SEDGWICK SUMMIT WASHINGTON WELD SYNOPSIS: A RIDGE OF HIGH PRESSURE ALOFT WILL BE CENTERED NEAR THE FOUR CORNERS AREA THROUGH TONIGHT. A WEAK UPPER LEVEL DISTURBANCE OVER NORTHEASTERN UTAH THIS MORNING WILL BRUSH ACROSS NORTHEASTERN COLORADO DURING THE AFTERNOON. THIS WILL HELP TRIGGER SCATTERED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS OVER THE MOUNTAINS AND FOOTHILLS DURING THE AFTERNOON. SOUTH TO SOUTHEAST SURFACE WINDS WILL FUNNEL LOW LEVEL MOISTURE INTO THE SOUTHERN FRONT RANGE FOOTHILLS THIS AFTERNOON. FOR THIS REASON...THE BEST POTENTIAL FOR THUNDERSTORMS WILL AGAIN OCCUR TO THE SOUTH AND WEST OF THE DENVER AREA TODAY. A FEW STORMS SHOULD MANAGE TO MAKE THEIR WAY INTO THE ADJACENT PLAINS BY LATE THIS AFTERNOON. THE STORMS COULD PRODUCE BRIEF HEAVY RAIN AND WIND GUSTS TO 40 MPH BUT ARE NOT EXPECTED TO BECOME SEVERE. AS A RESULT...SPOTTER ACTIVATION IS NOT ANTICIPATED. THE OUTLOOK FOR WEDNESDAY CALLS FOR WARMER AND DRIER CONDITIONS. COOPER
The Denver radar (KFTG), 14 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 21:42 UTC.
1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.
A small tornado touched down briefly but did no damage.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Colorado in 2002Every state in 2002This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for Colorado, 2002Warnings in Colorado, July 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: 5310051.