3 hail, 1 high wind, 1 thunderstorm wind, as filed by the National Weather Service.
Every event with a place to put it; 1 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 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 Denver/Boulder, CO wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jul 15, 1:40 AM MST, 10 hours 45 minutes earlier.
NORTHEAST AND NORTH CENTRAL COLORADO AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DENVER CO 240 AM MDT TUE JUL 15 2003 SHORT TERM DISCUSSION...UPR LVL RDG WL CONT TO DOMINTE WX PTRN THRU TONIGHT WITH WK WLY FLOW ALOFT. ENOUGH MID LVL MSTR WL BE OVR AREA TODAY AND COMBINE WITH STEEP LAPSE RATES TO PRODUCE SOME ISOLD-WDLY SCT HI BASED CONVECTION OVR THE MTNS AND FOOTHILLS THIS AFTN INTO THE EVENING HRS. OVR LOWER ELEVATIONS LOW LVL MSTR WL BE BETTER HOWEVER WITH SLY LOW LVL FLOW DVLPG AND COMING OFF THE PALMER DIVIDE LOW LVL MSTR MAY MIX OUT ALONG THE FNT RANGE WITH BEST LOW LVL MSTR OVR THE NERN CORNER. SOUNDINGS SHOW CONVECTIVE TEMPS IN THE MID TO UPPER 90S ACRS NERN CO THIS AFTN WITH SFC BASED CAPES IN THE 1000-1500 RANGE. MESO-ETA LOOKS RATHER HI WITH PRECIPITABLE WATER FCST AND MAYBE GENERATING TOO MUCH CONVECTION ALONG THE FNT RANGE BY LATER THIS AFTN AND EVENING. THUS WL KEEP TSTM COVERAGE IN THE ISOLD-WDLY SCT RANGE OVR LOWER ELVATIONS AS WELL. WITH LARGE TEMP-DEWPOINT SPREADS SOME STORMS COULD PRODUCE STG WNDS. TEMPS THIS AFTN SHOULDNT BE TOO MUCH DIFFERENT THAN YESTERDAY WITH READINGS IN THE 90S AGAIN OVR NERN CO. KLEYLA LONG TERM DISCUSSION...HOT AND MOSTLY DRY CONDITIONS WILL LIKELY CONTINUE ACROSS THE FCST AREA THRU THE WEEKEND AS A BROAD DOME OF HIGH PRESSURE AIR IS PROGD TO REMAIN SQUARELY ANCHORED OVR THE FOUR CORNERS AND SRN RCKY MTN REGION OF THE UNITED STATES. HIGHEST H5 HEIGHTS STAY PRETTY MUCH CENTERED OVR SRN COLORADO/NRN NEW MEXICO THRU LATE IN THE WEEK WITH H7 TEMPS FCSTD NEAR 20 DEG C BOTH WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY. AFTN TEMPS AT SEVERAL LOCALS IN NERN COLORADO SHOULD AGAIN HOOVER AROUND THE CENTURY MARK BOTH DAYS... AND MAYBE A FEW NEW MAX TEMPS RECORDS. AS NOTED IN THE PREVIOUS FCST DISCUSSION THE GFS CONTINUES TO COME AROUND MORE TO THE ECMWF...CANADIAN...NAVY NOGAPS MODEL SOLUTIONS AS THEY SHOW THE UPR RIDGE EXPANDING WEST OFF THE SRN CALIFORNIA COAST LATE IN THE PERIOD. IN THIS ELONGATED POSITION ANY SUBTROPICAL/TROPICAL MOISTURE THAT MIGHT ADVECT NWRD FM THE GULFS OF CALIFORNIA AND MEXICO WOULD BE DEFLECTED WEST AWAY FM COLORADO BY THE RELATIVELY DEEP ELY FLOW ON THE SOUTH SIDE OF THE UPR HIGH. THAT GOES FOR ANY MOISTURE ASSOCIATED WITH THE REMINENTS OF TROPICAL STORM CLAUDETTE. EARLIER GFS RUNS SHOWED PART OF THIS MOISTURE FLOWING UP INTO ERN COLORADO BY EARLY IN THE WEEKEND. EVEN THOUGH THE MODELS KEEP THIS BATCH OF MOISTURE WELL SOUTH OF THE STATE...EXPERIENCE LEADS ME TO BELIEVE THAT SOME OF THIS MOISTURE...MAINLY AT LOW-LVLS...WILL INFILTRATE THE RIDGE TO PROVIDE US WITH AT LEAST A SLIGHT CHANCE OF AFTERNOON AND EVENING T-STORMS THRU THE EXTENDED PERIOD. OTHERWISE...ONLY SUBTLE DAY-TO-DAY CHANCES IN TEMPS...CLOUD CVR AND DEW PTS ARE EXPECTED THRU THE PERIOD. BAKER .DEN...NONE.
COZ030>051-161200- HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DENVER CO 1100 AM MDT TUE JUL 15 2003 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR NORTHEAST AND NORTH CENTRAL COLORADO. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT ISOLATED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS WILL FORM OVER THE MOUNTAINS BY EARLY AFTERNOON AND SPREAD TO THE EAST OVER THE URBAN CORRIDOR AND NORTHEASTERN PLAINS FROM MID AFTERNOON THROUGH THE EVENING. ONE OR TWO OF THESE STORMS MAY BECOME SEVERE OVER THE URBAN CORRIDOR WITH THE PRINCIPAL THREAT BEING STRONG DOWNBURST THUNDERSTORM WINDS... RATHER THAN LARGE HAIL. INCREASING LOW LEVEL MOISTURE OVER THE HIGH PLAINS AGAINST THE EASTERN SLOPES OF THE MOUNTAINS WILL INCREASE THE INSTABILITY OVER THE EASTERN FOOTHILLS AND THE URBAN CORRIDOR. THE HIGH BASED THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE CAPABLE OF PRODUCING STRONG THUNDERSTORM WINDS. A HIGH FREEZING LEVEL WILL TEND TO INHIBIT THE OCCURRENCE OF LARGE HAIL. OVER THE NORTHEASTERN CORNER OF COLORADO A FRONTAL INVERSION MAY KEEP THE AIR MASS CAPPED. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...WEDNESDAY THROUGH MONDAY NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION MAY BE BE NEEDED LATER THIS AFTERNOON. GARD/FMC
The Denver radar (KFTG), 16 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 23:36 UTC.
3 hail, 1 high wind, 1 thunderstorm wind. Local standard time, as filed.
A peak wind gust of 62 mph (54 kts) was recorded from a dry microburst in Littleton.
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, July 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: 5368262, 5368263, 5368264, 5368265, 5368266.