Funnel Cloud in Colorado, September 18, 2002

Name: Funnel Cloud in Colorado, September 18, 2002
Start: 2002-09-18T12:15
End: 2002-09-18T12:23
Location: Colorado

September 18, 2002 · NWS GJT · 1 event in 1 county or zone

This funnel cloud was quite large and was observed by many people as far away as Nucla. The funnel cloud may have touched down in a remote area of Monogram Mesa.

Where it happened

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Wind
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Heat and drought
Cold
Fire, smoke and dust
Marine and coastal
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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 happened

The episode as NWS GJT wrote it up.

This funnel cloud was quite large and was observed by many people as far away as Nucla. The funnel cloud may have touched down in a remote area of Monogram Mesa. A public utility employee who photographed the funnel cloud was unable to determine if it touched down due to higher terrain between him and the tail of the funnel cloud.

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 Sep 18, 2:00 AM MST, 10 hours 15 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Sep 18, 2:00 AM MST, 10 hours 15 minutes before

WESTERN COLORADO & EASTERN UTAH AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GRAND JUNCTION CO
300 AM MDT WED SEP 18 2002

COLD UPPER TROUGH DROPPING DOWN OVER OUR CWFA AND PRODUCING ENHANCED
PRECIP ALONG BAROCLINIC ZONE. PRESENTLY SOME CONCERN FOR
POSSIBILITY OF SIGNIFICANT RAIN IN SOME AREAS...ESPECIALLY OVER COAL
SEAM BURN AREA. WILL CONTINUE TO CLOSELY MONITOR RADAR...GAGES...SAT
IMAGERY. OTHER AREA OF SIGNIFICANT CONCERN FOR LATER TODAY IS FOR
MISSIONARY BURN AREA AS SURFACE FRONT CONTINUES TO GRADUALLY PUSH
SOUTH. RADAR AND SATELLITE APPEAR TO SUPPORT MODEL TIMING AND
POSITION OF FRONT/UPPER TROUGH.  SO WOULD EXPECT BEST CHANCE OF
CONVECTIVE RELATED RAINFALL ON THE MISSIONARY RIDGE BURN AREA DURING
THE NOON TO MID AFTERNOON TIME PERIOD.  PRESENTLY DOES NOT APPEAR
THAT THE THREAT IN ANY AREA THROUGH TODAY WILL PRODUCE MUCH MORE THAN
NUISANCE FLOODING.

SNOW LEVELS SHOULD LOWER TO NEAR 10.5K MSL SOUTHERN ZONES BEHIND
FRONT AND NEAR 9K NORTHERN MOST ZONES TODAY...THOUGH COULD
TEMPORARILY LOWER ANOTHER 1000 FEET WITH CONVECTION.  SHOULD NOT
RECEIVE MORE THAN 4 INCHES TOTAL AT HIGH ELEVATIONS...EXCEPT LOCAL
SPOTS...MAINLY ABOVE 11K MSL COULD PICK UP MORE THAN 6 INCHES.

EXTENSIVE CLOUD COVER...PRECIP...AND COLD AIR ADVECTION WILL KEEP
MAX TEMPS WELL BELOW NORMAL THROUGHOUT OUR CWFA TODAY.  EXPECTED MAX
OF 66 AT GJT COULD BE A BIT TOO WARM...THOUGH IN THE BALL PARK.

TROUGH MOVES ON TO THE EAST TONIGHT WITH LINGERING PRECIP CONFINED
TO OROGRAPHICALLY FAVORED MOUNTAIN LOCATIONS UNDER NORTHERLY FLOW
ALOFT. DESPITE COLDEST AIR FROM TROUGH TO BE OVER US TONIGHT...
LINGERING CLOUDS AND RATHER HIGH RH VALUES TONIGHT OUGHT TO KEEP MIN
TEMPS FROM REACHING FREEZING AT LOWER ELEVATIONS...EXCEPT PERHAPS IN
THE GUNNISON AREA.

DRYING TREND TO CONTINUE ON THURSDAY WITH ONLY A FEW INSTABILITY
SHOWERS MAINLY IN AFTERNOON...AND MAINLY OVER MOUNTAINS.  ALTHOUGH
THE AREA REMAINS UNDER NORTHERLY FLOW ALOFT ON THURSDAY...MAX TEMPS
SHOULD BE 5-10 DEGREES WARMER THAN TODAY THROUGHOUT OUR CWFA DUE TO
SOME SOLAR INPUT.

FLOW ALOFT TO REMAIN NORTHWEST OVER OUR CWFA AT LEAST THROUGH THE
FIRST PART OF NEXT WEEK AS LONG WAVE TROUGH POSITION REMAINS OVER THE
NORTHERN MIDWEST.  THIS PATTERN SHOULD REMAIN DRY THROUGH AT LEAST
THE WEEKEND.  THEN A MINIMAL THREAT OF SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS
OVER MOUNTAINS MONDAY AND TUESDAY IN PREVIOUS FORECAST PACKAGE.
WOULD NOT BE SURPRISED IF WE CONTINUE DRY DURING THAT PERIOD...
THOUGH CANNOT RULE OUT THE POSSIBILITY OF A MORE VIGOROUS SHORTWAVE
EMBEDDED IN THE NORTHWEST FLOW THAN IS INDICATED IN THE LATEST MRF.
PRINGLE

.GJT...NONE.

The radar

The Grand Junction radar (KGJX), 74 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 19:13 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 funnel cloud. Local standard time, as filed.

Funnel Cloud, Montrose

When: September 18, 12:15 PM MST to 12:23 PM MST
Where: Montrose County, 6 mi WSW of Naturita
Reported by: NEWSPAPER
Coordinates: 38.402, -108.269 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

What these are

Funnel Cloud: A rotating column of cloud extending from a thunderstorm that did not reach the ground.

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

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in Colorado in 2002 Every state in 2002 This day in weather history Warnings in Colorado, September 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: 5320313.