Heavy Snow, Hemphill
- When
- February 5, 12:00 AM CST to 6:00 PM CST
- Where
- Hemphill forecast zone
- Reported by
- LAW ENFORCEMENT
- Coordinates
- 35.838, -100.270 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)
Heavy Snow in Texas, February 5, 2002
A cold front moved southeast across the Texas panhandle while a low pressure system in the upper atmosphere moved south across the central and southern Rockies and then southeast across West Texas. Shamrock and Allison Texas reported four to five inches of snow.
Where it happened
Every event with a place to put it; 5 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
The toll
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- None recorded
- Crop damage
- None recorded
- Events
- 5
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 AMA wrote it up.
A cold front moved southeast across the Texas panhandle while a low pressure system in the upper atmosphere moved south across the central and southern Rockies and then southeast across West Texas. Canadian and Wellington Texas reported four inches of snow while both Lipscomb...Shamrock and Allison Texas reported four to five inches of snow. Five to six inches of snow was reported at Clarendon Texas.
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 Amarillo, TX wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Feb 4, 3:50 PM CST, 8 hours 10 minutes earlier.
Area forecast discussion, Feb 4, 3:50 PM CST, 8 hours 10 minutes before
TEXAS/OKLAHOMA PANHANDLES FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AMARILLO TX 350 PM CST MON FEB 4 2002 NEXT SHORTWAVE TO AFFECT THE SOUTHERN HIGH PLAINS WAS MOVING NEARLY DUE SOUTH OVER THE CENTRAL ROCKIES EARLY THIS AFTERNOON. PER LATEST WV IMAGERY...SHORTWAVE APPEARS TO BE CUTTING-OFF. ASSOCIATED COLD FRONT WAS MOVING SOUTH AS WELL AND WAS STRETCHED FROM CENTRAL SOUTH DAKOTA...ACROSS WESTERN NEBRASKA TO CENTRAL COLORADO. LATEST AVN/ETA WERE IN FAIR AGREEMENT WITH AVN SLIGHTLY DEEPER... SLOWER AND A BIT MORE SYMMETRICAL WITH CUTOFF MID-LEVEL CIRCULATION. ALSO...AVN IS A BIT MORE GENEROUS WITH QPF GENERATION THAN ETA. THIS HAS BEEN TYPICAL DILEMMA BETWEEN THE TWO MODELS AS AVN OFTEN HAS A WET BIAS AND ETA A DRY BIAS. DECIDED TO GO WITH A COMPROMISE...WITH A BIT MORE WEIGHT TOWARD THE AVN. PRECIPITATION GRADIENT MAY BE QUITE STEEP FROM BEST CHANCE IN THE SOUTHEAST ZONES TO LOWEST IN THE NORTHWEST. PER WINTER WX CONFERENCE CALL...LBB WFO DISCUSSED SPECIAL SOUNDING RELEASED BY TTU MET DEPT INDICATING NEARLY ALL OF ENVIRONMENT ABOVE 850 MB WAS BELOW FREEZING. ONLY SMALL LAYER NEAR SURFACE THAT WAS ABOVE FREEZING. AVN INDICATING MODERATE TO STRONG COLD AIR ADVECTION ABOVE 850 MB BEGINNING TONIGHT AND CONTINUING THROUGH TUESDAY. COLD AIR ADVECTION BEHIND FRONT WILL BE WEAK AT FIRST GIVEN TEMPS ONLY IN THE 30S AND 40S ACROSS EASTERN WYOMING AND PANHANDLE OF NEBRASKA. THEREFORE...PRECIPITATION WILL LIKELY START OFF AS RAIN OR RAIN MIXED SNOW ACROSS THE SOUTHERN ZONES THIS EVENING THEN QUICKLY CHANGE OVER TO ALL SNOW BEHIND COLD FRONT SOMETIME AFTER MIDNIGHT. MODERATE ISENTROPIC LIFT WILL COINCIDE WITH MID LEVEL UPWARD FORCING AND DIFFLUENCE ALOFT ACROSS MAINLY THE SOUTHEASTERN ZONES STARTING LATE TONIGHT AND CONTINUING THROUGH TUESDAY MORNING. IN FACT...700 MB TEMPS FALL TO AROUND -12C TUESDAY MORNING CREATING FAVORABLE ENVIRONMENT FOR DENDRITIC GROWTH OF SNOW CRYSTALS. THEREFORE...WILL ISSUE A SNOW ADVISORY FOR THE SOUTHEASTERN ZONES FOR 06Z TO 18Z TUESDAY. IF STORM EXITS JUST A BIT SLOWER THAN ANTICIPATE...THE ADVISORY MAY HAVE TO BE EXTENDED FOR A FEW HOURS ACROSS A COUPLE OF SOUTHEASTERN COUNTIES TUESDAY AFTERNOON. BEYOND TUESDAY...NORTHWESTERLY MID AND UPPER LEVEL FLOW DE-AMPLIFIES AND BECOMES MORE ZONAL BY THE END OF THE WEEK RESULTING IN A GRADUAL INCREASE IN CLOUDS AND TEMPERATURES RETURNING TO NEAR NORMAL VALUES. PRELIMINARY CCF... AMA SU 028/032 021/042 024 45000 DHT EU 026/031 017/042 021 22000 .AMA... OK...NONE. TX...SNOW ADVISORY TXZ010-014-015-018>020. JH
The radar
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
Event by event
5 heavy snow. Local standard time, as filed.
Heavy Snow, Collingsworth
- When
- February 5, 12:00 AM CST to 6:00 PM CST
- Where
- Collingsworth forecast zone
- Reported by
- LAW ENFORCEMENT
- Coordinates
- 34.965, -100.270 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)
Heavy Snow, Donley
- When
- February 5, 12:00 AM CST to 6:00 PM CST
- Where
- Donley forecast zone
- Reported by
- LAW ENFORCEMENT
- Coordinates
- 34.965, -100.814 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)
Heavy Snow, Lipscomb
- When
- February 5, 12:00 AM CST to 6:00 PM CST
- Where
- Lipscomb forecast zone
- Reported by
- LAW ENFORCEMENT
- Coordinates
- 36.278, -100.273 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)
Heavy Snow, Wheeler
- When
- February 5, 12:00 AM CST to 6:00 PM CST
- Where
- Wheeler forecast zone
- Reported by
- LAW ENFORCEMENT
- Coordinates
- 35.401, -100.270 (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
- Dense Fog in California, February 5 to 6, 2002
- Cold in District of Columbia, February 5, 2002
- Winter Storm in Arkansas, February 5 to 6, 2002
- Winter Storm in Alabama, February 5 to 6, 2002
- Winter Storm in Texas, February 5, 2002
- Winter Storm in Tennessee, February 5 to 6, 2002
- Winter Storm in Texas, February 5, 2002
- Winter Storm in Arkansas, February 5 to 6, 2002
- Winter Storm in Mississippi, February 5 to 6, 2002
- Winter Storm in Kansas, February 5 to 6, 2002
- Heavy Snow in Arkansas, February 5 to 6, 2002
- Heavy Snow in Oklahoma, February 5 to 6, 2002
More
Every storm in Texas in 2002Every state in 2002This day in weather historyWarnings in Texas, 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: 5283067, 5283068, 5283069, 5283070, 5283071.