Oklahoma, 2002

Heavy Snow in Oklahoma, December 23 to 24, 2002

December 23 to 24, 2002 · NWS TSA · 13 events in 13 counties and zones

An upper level system moved out of the southern rockies and across the southern plains including Oklahoma December 23rd and 24th. Rain began to fall during the morning of the 23rd and due to evaporational cooling and colder air filtering into the area from the north it began to change over to snow from west to east across the area from 10 am cst on.

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it; 12 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

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The toll

Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
None recorded
Crop damage
None recorded
Events
13

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 TSA wrote it up.

An upper level system moved out of the southern rockies and across the southern plains including Oklahoma December 23rd and 24th. Rain began to fall during the morning of the 23rd and due to evaporational cooling and colder air filtering into the area from the north it began to change over to snow from west to east across the area from 10 am cst on. During the first few hours at any given location the snow fell at an inch or two per hour rate. Due to the heavy snow and temperatures dropping below freezing travel became extremely difficult. Numerous accidents were reported across northeast Oklahoma and several included injuries. One accident around midday on the 23rd resulted in a death about 8 miles east of Ponca City in Osage county. In addition to the difficult travel the snow caused some tree limbs to fall onto power lines producing a few power outages. As many as 13,000 customers in Owasso and eastern part of the city of Tulsa experienced an interruption of electric service. Four to five hundred customers scatterred around Ottawa, Craig, Delaware and Mayes counties also suffered power outages. The snow began to taper off from west to east during the late afternoon and early evening hours of the 23rd. However, the snow began again during the late evening hours of the 23rd and the early morning hours of the 24th. This snow lasted into the morning hours of the 24th. Although the snow during the nighttime period was not as heavy as that during the previous afternoon another one to three inches of snow accumulated. Some snow accumulations from the storm include:10 inches at Miami, 10 inches at South Coffeyville, 10 inches at Ralston, 9 inches at Bartlesville, 9 inches at Jay, 8 inches at Pawnee, 7 inches at Pawhuska, 7 inches at Tulsa, 6 inches at Drumright, 5 inches at Wagoner, 5 inches at Pryor and 5 inches at Tahlequah.

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 Tulsa, OK wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Dec 23, 3:45 AM CST, 6 hours 15 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Dec 23, 3:45 AM CST, 6 hours 15 minutes before
EASTERN OKLAHOMA/NORTHWEST ARKANSAS FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TULSA OKLAHOMA
345 AM CST MON DEC 23 2002

DECIDED TO UPGRADE OUR WATCH TO A WARNING.  KEPT THE SAME AREA AS
THE WATCH.

UPPER SYSTEM IN THE DESERT SOUTHWEST WILL SWING INTO THE SOUTHERN
PLAINS TODAY AND TONIGHT AND THEN OFF TO THE EAST TOMORROW.  RAIN
ALREADY FALLING ACROSS A GOOD PORTION OF THE AREA TO THE SOUTH AND
WEST OF TULSA.  COLDER AIR WILL FILTER INTO THE AREA FROM THE NORTH
AS THE SURFACE REFLECTION OF THE UPPER SYSTEM MOVES ACROSS TEXAS AND
INTO LOUISIANA TONIGHT.  EXPECT THE RAIN TO TURN TO SNOW SOMETIME
THIS AFTERNOON OVER NORTHEAST OKLAHOMA.  IN NORTHWEST ARKANSAS THE
BUFKIT SOUNDINGS SHOULD A WARM LAYER ALOFT AND THE BUFKIT ALGORITHMS
SHOWED MORE OF A POTENTIAL FOR SLEET INSTEAD OF SNOW THIS AFTERNOON
INTO THE EARLY PART OF THE EVENING.  THIS PRECIP SHOULD CHANGE TO
ALL SNOW THIS EVENING.  IN THE SOUTH EXPECT THE PRECIPITATION TO
REMAIN RAIN THROUGH THE EVENING BEFORE TRANSITIONING TO SNOW
OVERNIGHT.  SNOW AMOUNTS OF AS MUCH AS 5 TO 8 INCHES FELL OUT OF THE
GRIDS FOR MUCH OF NORTHEAST OKLAHOMA AND 2 TO 5 INCHES WERE
CALCULATED FOR THE NORTHWEST CORNER OF ARKANSAS.  GENERALLY 1 TO 3
INCHES WERE MENTIONED IN THE SOUTH LATER TONIGHT AND THIS AREA WILL
HAVE TO BE MONITORED FOR A POSSIBLE WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY TONIGHT.

THE PRECIPITATION SHOULD LOSE INTENSITY FROM WEST TO EAST LATER
TONIGHT AS WITNESSED IN THE ETA MODEL QPF.  COULD SEE SOME LIGHT
SNOW LINGER INTO THE MORNING BUT DO NOT EXPECT MUCH ADDITIONAL QPF.

TEMP WISE WENT CLOSE TO THE GFS MOS NUMBERS.  LOOKS LIKE IT WILL
STAY COLD ENOUGH THAT MOST OF THE AREA WILL SEE A WHITE CHRISTMAS.

CHRISTMAS DAY SHOULD BE SUNNY AND COLD.  ANOTHER WAVE COMES BY
THURSDAY BUT THE ASSOCIATED MOISTURE WILL BE MARGINAL AND HAVE ONLY
INCLUDED A SLIGHT CHANCE OF LIGHT SNOW OR LIGHT RAIN WITH IT.  A
WARMING TREND SHOULD FOLLOW INTO THE WEEKEND.

TUL  37  25  30  14 / 100 100  50  10
FSM  40  32  33  16 / 100 100  50  10
MLC  40  29  31  16 / 100 100  50  10
BVO  37  26  30   8 / 100 100  50  10
FYV  38  29  29  11 / 100 100  50  10
BYV  36  25  27  13 / 100 100  50  10
MIO  36  24  27  10 / 100 100  50  10
MKO  42  28  28  14 / 100 100  50  10
F10  41  28  29  15 / 100 100  50  10
HHW  42  31  34  20 / 100 100  50  10

FORECAST ID= 17
ABBAS

.TSA...
AR...WINTER STORM WARNING FOR THIS AFTERNOON THROUGH LATE TONIGHT FOR
ZONES ARZ001>002...ARZ010>011.

OK...WINTER STORM WARNING FOR THIS AFTERNOON THROUGH LATE TONIGHT FOR
ZONES OKZ054>070.
Hazardous weather outlook, Dec 23, 6:00 AM CST, 4 hours before
ARZ001-002-010-011-019-020-029-OKZ049-053>076-241200-

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TULSA OK
600 AM CST MON DEC 23 2002

THIS OUTLOOK IS FOR NORTHWEST AND WEST CENTRAL ARKANSAS AS WELL AS
MUCH OF EASTERN OKLAHOMA.

.DAY ONE...TODAY

WINTER WEATHER OUTLOOK
AREA 1...NORTHEAST OKLAHOMA AND NORTHWEST ARKANSAS GENERALLY NORTH
OF A LINE FROM OKEMAH TO HUNTSVILLE ARKANSAS.

PROBABILITY OF ICING/ICE ACCUMULATION 1/4 OR GREATER...20/5
PROBABILITY OF SNOW/SNOW ACCUMULATION 4 OR GREATER...100/75
GIVEN PROBABILITIES REPRESENT THE POTENTIAL FOR AN OCCURRENCE
ANYWHERE IN THE DEFINED AREA.

DISCUSSION...
A STRONG UPPER LEVEL STORM SYSTEM WILL MOVE OUT OF THE SOUTHWEST
INTO THE SOUTHERN PLAINS TODAY AND TONIGHT.  RAIN AND SCATTERED
THUNDERSTORMS HAVE ALREADY DEVELOPED OUT AHEAD OF THIS SYSTEM THIS
MORNING ACROSS TEXAS AND OKLAHOMA.  AS THE SYSTEM APPROACHES AND
COLDER AIR SPREADS INTO THE REGION...THE RAIN IS EXPECTED TO CHANGE
TO SNOW BEGINNING IN THE NORTH BY THIS AFTERNOON.  SIGNIFICANT SNOW
ACCUMULATIONS ARE EXPECTED ACROSS MUCH OF NORTHEAST OKLAHOMA AND
NORTHWEST ARKANSAS LATER TODAY INTO TONIGHT.  SNOWFALL AMOUNTS OF UP
TO 5 TO 8 INCHES ARE POSSIBLE IN THE WARNING AREA...AND SOME LOCALLY
HIGHER AMOUNTS MAY OCCUR.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...TUESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY
LIGHT SNOW IS EXPECTED TO LINGER INTO THE DAY ON TUESDAY...BUT
SHOULD BE ENDING AS THE UPPER LEVEL SYSTEM MOVES OUT OF THE AREA.
ANOTHER UPPER LEVEL DISTURBANCE WILL THEN BRING THE NEXT CHANCE OF
PRECIPITATION TO THE AREA FOR THURSDAY WITH A SLIGHT CHANCE OF LIGHT
RAIN OR LIGHT SNOW.

.SPOTTER / EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT ACTION STATEMENT...
EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT PERSONNEL SHOULD CONTINUE TO MONITOR THE LATEST
FORECASTS. PLEASE REFER TO THE LATEST WINTER STORM WARNING
(OKCWSWTUL) ISSUED BY THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE OFFICE IN TULSA
FOR ADDITIONAL DETAILS.

RELATED GRAPHICAL INFORMATION CAN BE FOUND AT...
WWW.SRH.NOAA.GOV/TULSA

The radar

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

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

13 heavy snow. Local standard time, as filed.

Heavy Snow, Tulsa

When
December 23, 10:00 AM CST to December 24, 10:00 AM CST
Where
Tulsa forecast zone
Reported by
NEWSPAPER
Coordinates
36.121, -95.941 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Heavy Snow, Cherokee

When
December 23, 10:00 AM CST to December 24, 10:00 AM CST
Where
Cherokee forecast zone
Reported by
NEWSPAPER
Coordinates
35.907, -95.000 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Heavy Snow, Craig

When
December 23, 10:00 AM CST to December 24, 10:00 AM CST
Where
Craig forecast zone
Reported by
NEWSPAPER
Coordinates
36.762, -95.208 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Heavy Snow, Creek

When
December 23, 10:00 AM CST to December 24, 10:00 AM CST
Where
Creek forecast zone
Reported by
NEWSPAPER
Coordinates
35.903, -96.371 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Heavy Snow, Delaware

When
December 23, 10:00 AM CST to December 24, 10:00 AM CST
Where
Delaware forecast zone
Reported by
NEWSPAPER
Coordinates
36.408, -94.803 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Heavy Snow, Mayes

When
December 23, 10:00 AM CST to December 24, 10:00 AM CST
Where
Mayes forecast zone
Reported by
NEWSPAPER
Coordinates
36.302, -95.231 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Heavy Snow, Nowata

When
December 23, 10:00 AM CST to December 24, 10:00 AM CST
Where
Nowata forecast zone
Reported by
NEWSPAPER
Coordinates
36.799, -95.617 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Heavy Snow, Osage

When
December 23, 10:00 AM CST to December 24, 10:00 AM CST
Where
Osage forecast zone
Reported by
NEWSPAPER

Heavy Snow, Ottawa

When
December 23, 10:00 AM CST to December 24, 10:00 AM CST
Where
Ottawa forecast zone
Reported by
NEWSPAPER
Coordinates
36.836, -94.810 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Heavy Snow, Pawnee

When
December 23, 10:00 AM CST to December 24, 10:00 AM CST
Where
Pawnee forecast zone
Reported by
NEWSPAPER
Coordinates
36.317, -96.699 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Heavy Snow, Rogers

When
December 23, 10:00 AM CST to December 24, 10:00 AM CST
Where
Rogers forecast zone
Reported by
NEWSPAPER
Coordinates
36.372, -95.604 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Heavy Snow, Wagoner

When
December 23, 10:00 AM CST to December 24, 10:00 AM CST
Where
Wagoner forecast zone
Reported by
NEWSPAPER
Coordinates
35.961, -95.521 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Heavy Snow, Washington

When
December 23, 10:00 AM CST to December 24, 10:00 AM CST
Where
Washington forecast zone
Reported by
NEWSPAPER
Coordinates
36.715, -95.904 (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

More

Every storm in Oklahoma in 2002Every state in 2002This day in weather historyWarnings in Oklahoma, December 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: 5325221, 5325222, 5325223, 5325224, 5325225, 5325226, 5325227, 5325228, 5325229, 5325230, 5325231, 5325232, 5325233.