including 6 inches around Beulah in Pueblo county, Divide in Teller county and Walsenburg in Huerfano county. Nine inches of snow occurred at Rye in Pueblo county.
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.
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.
The episode as NWS PUB wrote it up.
An upper level weather disturbance moving across the region produced some heavy snow...including 6 inches around Beulah in Pueblo county, Divide in Teller county and Walsenburg in Huerfano county. Nine inches of snow occurred at Rye in Pueblo county.
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 Pueblo, CO wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Feb 2, 2:20 PM MST, 5 hours 40 minutes earlier.
SOUTH CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST COLORADO AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PUEBLO
220 PM MST SUN FEB 2 2003
SHORT TERM DISCUSSION...(TONIGHT AND MONDAY).
...WELL GET SOME SNOW...BUT NOT ALL THAT MUCH...
CURRENTLY...FRONT HAS JUMPED THE DIVIDE AND IS HEADING SOUTH. LOW
CLOUDS NOW NOTED IN MNH WITH WIND SHIFT LAST HOUR AT COS. UPPER LOW
OVER UTAH MOVING EAST WITH A FEW CGS NOTED IN LTG PLOTS.
TONIGHT...FRONT WILL CONTINUE RACING SOUTH THRU THE EARLY EVENING
HOURS. PRECIP SHOULD START FALLING ON THE PALMER DVD/PIKES PEAK
REGION SHORTLY AFTER 6 PM AND WILL WORK SOUTH FROM THERE. GIVEN QUICK
MOVEMENT OF SYSTEM...THERE SHOULD NOT BE ALL THAT MUCH SNOW WITH IT
(ALTHOUGH ANY WE GET WILL SEEM LIKE ALOT SINCE WE HAVENT HAD MUCH
ANY THIS YEAR). WENT WITH ADVISORY NUMBERS FOR THE PIKES PEAK
REGION...WITH LESSER AMOUNTS ALL OTHER REGIONS. PRECIP WILL BEGIN
AS RAIN AND THEN QUICKLY GO TO SNOW AS ADVECTION OF COLD AIR
COMMENCES. SYSTEM HAS SOME VERY GOOD FORCING WITH IT SO A CG OR TWO
IS NOT OUT OF THE QUESTION THIS EVENING. SNOW MAY COME DOWN QUITE
HEAVILY IN SOME AREAS FOR A SHORT PERIOD OF TIME DUE TO THE FORCING.
OUT EAST ON PLAINS...SNOW WILL NOT ACCUMULATE TO MUCH IF ANY. ITS
BEEN TOO WARM. ALSO IT WILL LAST AS RAIN A BIT LONGER OUT THERE DUE
TO THE LOWER ELEVATIONS.
WINDS EVERYWHERE WILL SHIFT TO NORTH AND BE GUSTY LATER THIS
EVENING..WITH A FEW GUSTS TO 40 MPH POSSIBLE.
MONDAY...WX WILL CLEAR FROM N TO S. MAY GET AN ADDITIONAL INCH OR
TWO DOWN IN THE S SANGRES...OTHERWISE ANTICIPATE CLEARING SKIES
DURING THE LATE MORNING AND EARLY AFTERNOON. TEMPS WILL BE SHARPLY
COLDER TOMORROW...WITH THE COOLEST CHANGES OCCURRING WHERE SNOW
ACCUMULATES TONIGHT. HODANISH
LONG TERM DISCUSSION...(MONDAY NIGHT THROUGH NEXT SUNDAY).
WILL KEEP THIS RATHER SHORT AS QUITE BUSY WITH INCOMING WEATHER
SYSTEM AS WELL AS A SOME COMPUTER GLITCHES. MAIN CONCERN IN THE LONG
TERM WILL BE PERIODIC POPS AND COLD TEMPERATURES...ESPECIALLY IN
COMPARISON TO THE LAST SEVERAL WEEKS.
WELL...A RETURN TO WINTER IS THE SCREAMING HEADLINE THIS CYCLE AS
THE CWFA REMAINS IN AN UNSETTLED AND COLD PATTERN THROUGH THE PERIOD
AS AN UPPER TROUGH CONTINUOUSLY RELOADS OVER THE REGION.
THE MAIN BENEFICIARY FOR PRECIPITATION APPEARS TO BE THE CENTRAL
MOUNTAINS...ALTHOUGH THE PLAINS ARE PROJECTED TO SEE ENHANCED
PRECIPITATION CHANCES WEDNESDAY NIGHT INTO THURSDAY AND THEN AGAIN
NEXT SUNDAY WHICH WILL BE DEPICTED IN THE UPCOMING GRIDS/ZONES.
AS ALLUDED TO EARLIER...TEMPERATURES TO REMAIN WELL BELOW CLIMATOLOGY
THROUGH THE PERIOD...WHICH IS QUITE A CHANGE COMPARED TO THE WEATHER
WE HAVE BEEN ENJOYING THE PAST SEVERAL WEEKS. THE COLDEST DAYS
ARE PROJECTED TO OCCUR ON THURSDAY AND NEXT SUNDAY WITH 700MB
TEMPERATURES PLAYING BETWEEN -10 AND -15 THESE DAYS.
.PUB...SNOW/BS ADVISORY 81/82/84 (PALMER DIVIDE/TELLER
COUNTY/PIKES PEAK) FOR TONIGHT.COZ058>089-093>099-031400- HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK ... CORRECTION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PUEBLO CO 700 AM MST SUN FEB 2 2003 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR SOUTH CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST COLORADO. ...WINTER STORM WATCH FOR TELLER COUNTY AND NORTHERN EL PASO COUNTY FOR TONIGHT... .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT. AN UPPER LEVEL STORM SYSTEM WILL MOVE ACROSS COLORADO TODAY... SPREADING LIGHT SNOW ACCUMULATIONS OF 1 TO 2 INCHES ACROSS THE SOUTHWEST AND CENTRAL MOUNTAINS THIS AFTERNOON. TONIGHT... HOWEVER...WINDS WILL SHIFT TO A NORTHERLY DIRECTION AND INCREASE... PRODUCING SNOW ACCUMULATIONS IN EXCESS OF 6 INCHES ACROSS NORTHERN EL PASO COUNTY...AND IN EXCESS OF 8 INCHES ACROSS TELLER COUNTY AND THE RAMPART RANGE. STRONG GUSTY NORTH WINDS OF 20 TO 30 MPH WITH GUSTS UP TO 45 MPH...COUPLED WITH THE EXPECTED SNOWFALL...WILL PRODUCE NEAR BLIZZARD CONDITIONS LATER TONIGHT...ESPECIALLY OVER MONUMENT HILL. ELSEWHERE...THE REMAINING HIGHER TERRAIN WILL SEE ADDITIONAL SNOW ACCUMULATIONS RANGING FROM 2 TO 5 INCHES...WITH UP TO 3 INCHES OF SNOW POSSIBLE ACROSS MUCH OF THE EASTERN COLORADO PLAINS. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...MONDAY THROUGH SATURDAY. ANOTHER WEATHER SYSTEM MAY BRING HAZARDOUS WEATHER TO COLORADO WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY. THIS NEXT SYSTEM HAS THE POTENTIAL TO BRING SOME SIGNIFICANT SNOW ACCUMULATIONS TO THE CENTRAL MOUNTAINS ON WEDNESDAY THAT MAY SPREAD ACROSS TO THE EASTERN PLAINS ON THURSDAY. IT IS TOO SOON TO DETERMINE THE EXACT PATH...STRENGTH AND IMPACT OF THIS NEXT WEATHER SYSTEM SO STAY TUNED FOR UPDATED FORECASTS AND INFORMATION. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... WEATHER CONDITIONS THAT MEET REPORTING CRITERIA FOR SPOTTERS WILL BE LIKELY TONIGHT. MORE INFORMATION MAY BE OBTAINED AT...WWW.CRH.NOAA.GOV/PUB. MOORE/FORTUNE
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
3 heavy snow. Local standard time, as filed.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Colorado in 2003Every state in 2003This day in weather historyWarnings in Colorado, February 2003
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: 5342416, 5342417, 5342418.