Name: Avalanche in Colorado, March 17, 2002
Start: 2002-03-17T13:30
End: 2002-03-17T13:35
Location: Colorado

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
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The toll

Deaths: 1
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 happened

The episode as NWS GJT wrote it up.

Snowmobilers triggered a medium-sized soft-slab avalanche on Pagoda Peak, 36 miles southwest of Steamboat Springs in northeast Rio Blanco County. The slide buried and killed one man under 3 feet of snow while still on his snowmobile and partly buried another person. The slide was 300 to 400 feet wide and traveled 400 vertical feet.

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 Grand Junction, CO wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Mar 17, 2:33 AM MST, 10 hours 57 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Mar 17, 2:33 AM MST, 10 hours 57 minutes before

WESTERN COLORADO & EASTERN UTAH AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GRAND JUNCTION CO
233 AM MST SUN MAR 17 2002

BROAD TROUGH CONTINUES OVER THE WESTERN STATES.  AREA OF SNOW OVER
NW UT APPEARS ASSOC WITH AREAS OF UPPER DIV AND WEAK SURFACE TROUGH
AS PIECE OF ENERGY EJECTED FROM UPPER TROUGH.  THIS SHOULD BRING SOME
SNOW TO NE UT AS IT SLIDES OVER SW WY/NE UT THIS MORNING.  ANOTHER
AREA OF ENHANCEMENT ON IR SATELLITE OVER SWRN CO WHERE ROAD REPORTS
LISTING SOME SNOW IN THE SAN JUAN MTN PASSES AND METARS INDICATED
SCT SNOW IN 4-CRNRS AREA. THIS FEATURE LIKELY ASSOC WITH VORT MAX
INDICATED OVER NRN AZ...WHICH PROGGED TO SLIDE ACROSS SWRN CO THIS
MORNING...SO EXPECT SNOW/SNOW SHOWERS TO DECREASE OVER SAN JUANS BY
MIDDAY BEFORE PICKING UP AGAIN LATE AS MODELS INDICATE UPPER JET MAX
TRYING TO REFORM IN THE VICINITY OF THIS AREA. OTHERWISE...WILL GO
WITH CHANCE OF SHOWERS MOST VALLEYS AND GENERALLY SCT SHOWERS MTNS
TODAY.

LARGER CONCERN REMAINS THE SHORTWAVE CURRENTLY JUST OFF WA COAST.
JET ASSOCIATED WITH THIS FEATURE ALREADY POKING INTO CENT CA. VORT
MAX FORECAST TO DROP SWD ACROSS CA SHARPENING TROUGH OVER GREAT
BASIN TODAY...BEFORE SLIDING EAST SUN NIGHT/MON AS VORT CTR MOVES
ACROSS AZ/NM. SFC TROUGH/FRONT SHOULD SLIDE THROUGH LATE TONIGHT...
WITH 500 MB TROUGH PASSAGE ABOUT MIDDAY ON MONDAY. ETA ABOUT 6 HRS
SLOWER THAN AVN AND PREFERRED. DYNAMICS AND OROGRAPHICS IMPROVE SNOW
CHANCES SUN NIGHT IN GOOD S-SW FLOW...THEN OROGRAPHICS DECREASE MON
WITH FLOW SHIFTING TO THE NW AS TROUGH BODILY MOVES THROUGH.  WINTER
STORM WATCH STILL LOOKS OKAY FOR SAN JUAN MTNS SUN NIGHT AND MON.
MAY ALSO SEE ADVISORY SNOW AMTS CENT/NRN MTNS. NWLY FLOW AND
INSTABILITY WITH COOLING POST-TROUGH SHOULD KEEP SNOW SHOWERS PRESENT
INTO MON NIGHT BEFORE DECREASING WITH DOWNWARD Q-FORCING INDICATED
AFTER 06Z TUE. NWLY FLOW ALOFT WILL KEEP A CHANCE OF SHOW SHOWERS
PRESENT ON TUE.

EXTENDED (WED-SAT)...MODELS STILL TRENDING TOWARD WESTERN RIDGING
LATE IN THE PERIOD. NWLY FLOW WILL WARRANT SOME MENTION OF SNOW
SHOWERS FOR MAINLY NRN MTNS ON WED...THEN AMPLIFYING RIDGE TO OUR
WEST POINTS TOWARDS MOSTLY DRY AND GRADUALLY WARMING CONDITIONS
THU-SAT.

JAD

WESTERN COLORADO AND EASTERN UTAH EMERGENCY MANAGERS SHOULD MAINTAIN
A NORMAL LEVEL OF WEATHER AWARENESS TODAY...BUT INCREASE AWARENESS
LEVELS TONIGHT AND MONDAY AS SNOW BECOMES WIDESPREAD ACROSS MUCH OF
THE AREA...ESPECIALLY THE MOUNTAINS.  PLEASE SEE THE WINTER STORM
WATCH FOR THE SAN JUAN MTNS (DENWSWGJT) FOR ADDITIONAL DETAILS.

.GJT...WINTER STORM WATCH TONIGHT AND MONDAY FOR NORTHWESTERN
       AND SOUTHWESTERN SAN JUAN MOUNTAINS (CO ZONES 18 AND 19).

The radar

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

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 avalanche. Local standard time, as filed.

Avalanche, Flattop Mountains

When: March 17, 1:30 PM MST to 1:35 PM MST
Where: Flattop Mountains forecast zone
Deaths: 1 direct, 0 indirect
Reported by: NEWSPAPER
Coordinates: 40.062, -107.603 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

The people who died

As the offices recorded each death: direct deaths were caused by the weather itself, indirect ones by something it set in motion.

Event	Date	Age	Sex	Where	Kind
Avalanche, Flattop Mountains	2002-03-17	31	Male	Outside/Open Areas	Direct

What these are

Avalanche: A mass of snow sliding down a mountainside that caused a death, an injury or damage.

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

The same day elsewhere

More

Every storm in Colorado in 2002 Every state in 2002 This day in weather history Warnings in Colorado, March 2002

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: 5284924.