Upslope conditions allowed for heavy snow to develop, especially in and near the Front Range Foothills. Storm totals included: 14 inches at Eldorado Springs and near Genesee, 13 inches at Lookout Mountain and Horsetooth Inlet Bay, 12 inches at Coal Creek Canyon, Crescent Park, 1 mile north of Loveland and Red Feather Lakes, 10 inches, 2 miles east of Boulder and Nederland, 9 inches at the…
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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 BOU wrote it up.
Upslope conditions allowed for heavy snow to develop, especially in and near the Front Range Foothills. Storm totals included: 14 inches at Eldorado Springs and near Genesee, 13 inches at Lookout Mountain and Horsetooth Inlet Bay, 12 inches at Coal Creek Canyon, Crescent Park, 1 mile north of Loveland and Red Feather Lakes, 10 inches, 2 miles east of Boulder and Nederland, 9 inches at the Boulder NOAA Campus and Morrison, 8 inches at Broomfield, Erie, Estes Park, Golden, Louisville, Littleton and Platteville. Elsewhere, snow amounts ranged from 5 to 7 inches.
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 Feb 28, 3:10 PM MST, 8 hours 50 minutes earlier.
NORTHEAST AND NORTH CENTRAL COLORADO AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DENVER COLORADO
300 PM MST THU FEB 28 2002
SHORT TERM DISCUSSION: SATELLITE LOOP SHOWS ENHANCEMENT BEGINNING TO
INCREASE OVER WYOMING AND RADARS AND SURFACE OBS BACKING THIS UP.
MODELS ARE PRETTY SIMILAR WITH UPPER TROF SWINGING SOUTHEAST FROM
EASTERN IDAHO AND THEN EVENTUALLY EASTWARD ACROSS EASTERN COLORADO
BY MID DAY FRIDAY. MODELS SHOW A NICE BATCH OF UPWARD QUASI-
GEOSTROPHIC FORCING AND MID LEVEL FRONTOGENESIS. LATEST MESOETA A
TAD FARTHER NORTH SO LATER SHIFTS WILL HAVE TO WATCH AND SEE WHERE
THE BEST SNOW BANDS (GOOD CONDITIONAL SYMMETRIC INSTABILITY WITH JET
OVERHEAD) SET UP. AT THIS TIME...BELIEVE BEST BANDS WILL SINK TO
THE MONUMENT RIDGE BY FRIDAY MORNING SO UPGRADED WATCH IN ZONES 46
AND 47 TO A WARNING. OVER THE REST OF THE PLAINS HAVE OPTED FOR
SNOW AND BLOWING SNOW ADVISORIES WITH 3-5 INCHES ACCUMULATION AND
GUSTY WINDS UP TO 35 MPH. THIS WILL CREATE SOME PRETTY NASTY
DRIVING CONDITIONS OVER THE PLAINS. LATEST MESOETA HAS TRENDED A
BIT FARTHER NORTH SO ZONES 45 AND 49 INTO WASHINGTON COUNTY HIGHER
TERRAIN MAY ALSO BE UNDER THE GUN SO EVENING SHIFT WILL HAVE TO
WATCH THE LATEST RADAR AND NEW DATA.
PREVIOUS FORECAST AND LATEST MODELS SEEMS TO HAVE A GOOD HANDLE ON
SNOW AMOUNTS...ALTHOUGH AMOUNTS IN THE MOUNTAINS WERE RAISED A FEW
INCHES WITH THE AMOUNT OF MID LEVEL FORCING PRESENT. THAT MAKES
ADVISORY CRITERIA SNOWFALL IN THE HIGH MOUNTAIN VALLEYS AS WELL.
TEMPERATURES TURN QUITE COLD TONIGHT WITH LOWS AT OR BELOW 10 AND
LITTLE IF ANY WARMUP FRIDAY. WIND CHILL READINGS SHOULD BE 10 BELOW
TO 20 BELOW ZERO...LOVELY FOR THE FIRST DAY OF MARCH.
BARJENBRUCH
LONG TERM DISCUSSION: LITTLE CHANGE IN VERY COLD AND SOMETIMES SNOWY
PATTERN ANTICIPATED DURING 3RD AND 4TH PERIODS. ETA AND AVN DIFFER
SOME ON STRENGTH AND POSITION OF MID-LVL TROUGH AND SFC PRES/850MB
HT AND WIND FIELDS. AVN DIGS APCHG UPR TROUGH FARTHER WEST OVR THE
FOUR CORNERS REGION BY LATE FRI WITH A CLOSED H7 LOW OVR XTRM NERN
AZ FRI NIGHT. AVN ALSO SHOWING A VERY COLD 1050MB SFC HIGH PLOWING
SEWRD ACRS SERN WY AT SAME TIME. WHEREAS ETA NOT AS COLD NOR AS WET
AS IT HAS UPR TROUGH FARTHER EAST AND NOT AS PINCHED OFF. NEXT SFC
HIGH UPSTREAM NOT AS STRONG AND PROGD BNDRY LYR WINDS E OMTNS NOT AS
STRONG AS THOSE ON AVN. BASED ON PERFORMANCE OF BOTH MODELS PAST
COUPLE OF DAYS...BELIEVE ETA SOLUTION WILL AGAIN COME AROUND TO THE
WETTER...WINDIER AND COLDER AVN. WORDING CURRENTLY IN 3RD PERIOD
FCST LOOKS REASONABLE...ALTHOUGH WILL ADD MINOR SNOW ACCUMULATIONS
FRI NIGHT TO FOOTHILL ZONES AND MONUMENT RIDGE ZONE 41 SOUTH OF
DENVER. MAY EVEN SEE A FEW FLURRIES LINGERING IN HIGHER TRRN SOUTH
AND WEST OF DENVER SATURDAY MORNING WITH WANING UPSLOPE FLOW. WEAK
H7-H3 QG ASCENT ALONG H5 DEFORMATION AXIS...MOIST ELY UPSLOPE FLOW
IN LOWEST 6000FT LAYER AND A REINFORCING PUSH OF COLD AIR FRI
EVENING WOULD ALL SUPPORT THIS. AS FOR TEMPS...MOS GUIDANCE NUMBERS
CONTINUE TO SLIDE WITH EACH MODEL RUN. MAY NOT CLIMB ABV THE MID
TEENS SAT ACRS NERN PLAINS WITH FRESH SNOW COVER AND COLDEST AIR
ALOFT MOVG OVR NERN COLORADO ON SAT. BOTH ETA AND AVN LOWER H7
TEMPS TO NEAR -24C BY 18Z/SAT. ALSO SEE GUSTY NLY WNDS OF 15-30KTS
PRODUCING AREAS OF BLOWING SNOW ON THE PLAINS FRI NIGHT AND SAT
MORNING. CLEARING SKIES SAT AFTN AND EVENING WILL PRODUCE ANOTHER
BITTERLY COLD NIGHT WITH SOME AREAS E OMTNS DROPPING BELOW ZERO.
MTNS NOT LIKELY TO SEE MUCH MORE SNOW BEYOND 2ND PERIOD...BUT COLD
TEMPS WILL BE BIGGEST CONCERN. MTN VLYS AND AREAS ABV TIMBERLINE
COULD SEE TEMPS AS LOW AS 20 BELOW BOTH FRI AND SAT NIGHTS. WHO SAID
WINTER WAS OVER?
LOOKING AHEAD SUNDAY THROUGH MID-WEEK...MEDIUM RANGE MODELS SHOW A
RETURN TO DRY AND WARMER W-NWLY FLOW THROUGH THE PERIOD. THERES
SOME DISAGREEMENT IN THE MODELS AROUND MID-WEEK. MRF SHOWS A WAVE
FORMING ALONG STG W-NWLY FLOW AND PASSAGE OF A PACIFIC COLD FNT
WED. WHILE THE EUROPEAN KEEPS WARM/DRY ZONAL FLOW OVR US. SINCE
ALL THIS NEAR END OF EXTENDED PD...WILL LEAVE THINGS DRY FOR NOW.
BAKER
.DEN...WINTER STORM WARNING TONIGHT THROUGH NOON FRIDAY FRONT RANGE
MOUNTAINS EAST OF THE DIVIDE...FOOTHILLS...ADJACENT
PLAINS AND MONUMENT RIDGE...ZONES 33>36..38>41..46>47.
SNOW AND BLOWING SNOW ADVISORY TONIGHT THROUGH NOON FRIDAY
NORTHEASTERN PLAINS AND NORTHERN GORE AND PARK RANGES...
ZONES 31..42>45..48>51.
SNOW ADVISORY TONIGHT THROUGH NOON FRIDAY HIGH MOUNTAIN
VALLEYS...ZONES 30..32..AND 37.The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
9 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, March 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: 5284391, 5284392, 5284393, 5284394, 5284395, 5284396, 5284397, 5284398, 5284399.