Heavy Snow in Idaho, February 6 to 8, 2002

Name: Heavy Snow in Idaho, February 6 to 8, 2002
Start: 2002-02-06T21:00
End: 2002-02-08T10:00
Location: Idaho

February 6 to 8, 2002 · NWS OTX · 3 events in 3 counties and zones

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it; 3 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
Other

Open the live radar over this ground

The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: None recorded
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 3

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 OTX wrote it up.

Moisture-laden southwest flow on the 6th and 7th followed by a strong surface low pressure center moving directly across the northern Idaho panhandle early on the 8th brought heavy snow to the central and northern panhandle. With snow levels on the 6th and 7th around 2500 feet, this meant that the lower valleys got 2 inches or less of snow while elevations above 2500 feet got considerably more. Two-day snowfall totals with this storm include: Schweitzer Bowl SNOTEL...27", Lost Lake SNOTEL (17 SE Calder)...27", Bear Mountain SNOTEL...24", Schweitzer Ski Area...23", Lookout Pass Ski Area...18", Mica Creek SNOTEL...18", Silver Mountain Ski Area...16", Hidden Lake SNOTEL...16", Moscow Mountain SNOTEL (8 NE Moscow)...16", Mosquito Ridge SNOTEL (22 SE Sandpoint)...14", Sherwin SNOTEL...11", Humboldt Gulch SNOTEL...11", Wallace...10.6", Sunset SNOTEL...9", 5 SE Coeur D'Alene...7.5", and Rathdrum...4".

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 Spokane, WA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Feb 6, 8:55 PM PST, 5 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Feb 6, 8:55 PM PST, 5 minutes before

EASTERN WASHINGTON AND NORTH IDAHO AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SPOKANE WASHINGTON
855 PM PST WED FEB 6 2002

IR AND WATER VAPOR SATELLITE LOOPS THIS EVENING SHOW A QUASI-
STATIONARY PATTERN OVER THE PAC NW WITH A BROAD SWATH OF MOISTURE
STREAMING INTO THE INLAND NW FROM THE SW. DURING THE PAST SEVERAL
HOURS THE CLOUD TOPS ALONG THIS BAND HAVE BEEN COOLING...HOWEVER IT
WAS BEGINNING TO ERODE OR DRY A BIT FROM THE WEST. THIS DRYING WAS
LIKELY THE RESULT OF A SHORTWAVE TROF PASSING ACROSS THE NW HALF OF
WASHINGTON AND INTO SOUTHERN BRITISH COLUMBIA. ISALLOBARIC
ANALYSIS...DOES REVEAL DECENT PRESSURE RISES NOW SPILLING INTO THE
WESTERN HALF OF WA...WHILE THERE HAS BEEN A MARKED DECREASE IN THE
WIND FLOW WITH MORE A WESTERLY COMPONENT BEHIND THIS FEATURE PER THE
SEATTLE VAD WIND PROFILER. SUSPECT THE WESTERLY FLOW WILL GENERALLY
PRECLUDE THE WESTERN PORTIONS OF THE CWA...IE WENATCHEE...MOSES
LAKE...AND OMAK AREAS FROM SEEING ANY MORE PRECIPITATION OVERNIGHT
PER DECENT RAIN SHADOWING FROM THE CASCADES. OF COURSE THIS WILL ALSO
KEEP PRECIPITATION GOING NEAR THE CREST...BUT NOT TOO FAR EAST OF IT
DUE TO THE WEAKENING WIND TREND. FOR THE REMAINDER OF THE REGION...IT
LOOKS LIKE WE WILL SEE A WET NIGHT AS LOW LEVEL THETA-E RIDGE AXIS
EXTENDS FROM THE DALLES TO SANDPOINT THROUGH 12Z WITH SOUTHWEST WINDS
PARALLEL TO ITS AXIS. NOT TOO CONFIDENT IN THE MODEL DEPICTION OF THE
PRECIPITATION...HOWEVER SUSPECT THEIR INKLING OF THE HEAVIEST
PRECIPITATION OCCURRING IN THE CENTRAL IDAHO PANHANDLE MOUNTAINS
LOOKS GOOD PER OROGRAPHIC UPSLOPE CONTRIBUTIONS. WILL RAISE ALL POPS
TONIGHT SOUTH OF A SANDPOINT TO OTHELLO LINE PER PRIOR REASONING AND
LOWER THEM IN THE NW ZONES. OTHER CONCERN TONIGHT WILL BE THE TYPE OF
PRECIPITATION WHICH FALLS. THE SPOKANE 00Z FREEZING LEVEL CAME IN AT
5200 FEET...BUT MORE TELLING WAS THE WET-BULB READING OF 2700 FEET OR
JUST 400 FEET OFF THE DECK ON THE WEST PLAINS. A RECENT LOOK AT THE
RAWS SITE NORTH OF SPOKANE WOULD SUPPORT SLIGHTLY LOWER SNOW LEVELS
TO OUR NORTH AND HIGHER ONES TO OUR SOUTH. THE LEVELS SHOULD FALL A
BIT TONIGHT DUE TO CONTINUED EVAPORATIVE COOLING...HOWEVER THIS WILL
BE COUNTERBALANCED A BIT BY THE PERSISTENT WARM AIR ADVECTION IN THE
LOWER ATMOSPHERE. WILL FRESHEN UP TONIGHTS ZONES BY PUTTING SNOW
LEVELS INTO THEM.

REMAINDER OF FORECAST LOOKS GOOD...ESPECIALLY THE WINTER STORM WATCH.
THE LATEST AVN MODEL SUGGEST A POWERHOUSE SURFACE LOW WILL MOVE INTO
THE OREGON COAST ON THURSDAY BEFORE HEADING INTO LEWISTON BY EVENING.
THE OTHER MODELS DOWNPLAYED THIS LOW SIGNIFICANTLY. A SHIP REPORT AT
00Z NEAR 39/150 SUGGESTS THE AVN MAY HAVE THE RIGHT IDEA...AND EVEN
THEN IT IS UNDERPLAYING THE STRENGTH OF THIS LOW. IF THE AVN SOLUTION
DOES COME TO FRUITION...WE WOULD LIKELY NEED TO EXTEND THE WATCH AREA
INTO THE BLUE MOUNTAINS AND POSSIBLY THE CAMAS PRAIRIE DEPENDING ON
SNOW LEVELS. MEANWHILE...THE NORTHERN PORTION OF THE IDAHO PANHANDLE
WOULD BE SPARED THE BULK OF THE PRECIPITATION.

...THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRODUCT CONCERNING WARNINGS AND FORECASTS
IS VALID ONLY AT THE TIME OF ISSUANCE. THE LATEST WARNING AND
FORECAST INFORMATION WILL BE FOUND IN THE APPROPRIATE PRODUCTS...

GEG 033/037/029/038/027/039 854535
COE 034/036/028/038/026/039 854535
PUW 033/038/030/037/027/040 754535
LWS 039/047/035/045/033/045 535333
CQV 030/036/028/038/027/039 855535
SPT 031/035/028/035/028/037 898635
WWP 032/034/027/034/027/035 898635
EAT 030/036/029/038/028/040 122333
MWH 032/042/030/041/030/041 122333

.OTX...WINTER STORM WATCH ID ZONES 01 AND 04 THURSDAY THROUGH
       THURSDAY NIGHT.

In the hours before

Local storm report, Feb 6, 5:14 PM PST, 3 hours 46 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SPOKANE, WA
514 PM PST WED FEB 6 2002

TIME(PST)  .....CITY LOCATION.....STATE   ...EVENT/REMARKS...
           ....COUNTY LOCATION....

0100 PM    2 N OMAK                  WA   HEAVY SNOWFALL
02/06/02   OKANOGAN                       4 INCHES OF SNOW FELL
                                          SINCE 630 AM REPORTED BY
                                          CO-OP OBSERVER

0300 PM    LAKE WENATCHEE            WA   HEAVY SNOWFALL
02/06/02   CHELAN                         4 INCHES OF NEW SNOW HAD
                                          FALLEN SINCE 0615 AM

FX

The radar

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

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

3 heavy snow. Local standard time, as filed.

Heavy Snow, Northern Panhandle

When: February 6, 9:00 PM PST to February 8, 10:00 AM PST
Where: Northern Panhandle forecast zone
Reported by: AWOS,ASOS,MESONET,ETC
Coordinates: 48.247, -116.588 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Heavy Snow, Central Panhandle Mountains

When: February 6, 9:00 PM PST to February 8, 10:00 AM PST
Where: Central Panhandle Mountains forecast zone
Reported by: OFFICIAL NWS OBS.
Coordinates: 47.265, -116.491 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Heavy Snow, Coeur D'Alene Area

When: February 7, 12:00 PM PST to February 8, 10:00 AM PST
Where: Coeur D'Alene Area forecast zone
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER
Coordinates: 47.675, -116.700 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

What these are

Heavy Snow: Snowfall reaching the local warning threshold without the other hazards of a winter storm.

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

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in Idaho in 2002 Every state in 2002 This day in weather history Warnings in Idaho, February 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: 5283554, 5283556, 5283555.