1 flood, 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 Paducah, KY wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Feb 23, 12:52 PM CST, 1 hour 8 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PADUCAH KY 1250 PM SUN FEB 23 2003 SNOW AMOUNTS ARE THE MAIN FORECAST CONCERN FOR TONIGHT. UPSTREAM SURFACE OBS AND KSGF/KLZK RADARS SHOW A WELL DEVELOPED BAND OF LOCALLY HEAVY SNOW OVER THE OZARKS. SEE SPC MESOSCALE DISCUSSION NUMBER 146 FOR DETAILS ON THIS SNOW BAND. THE SNOW IS OCCURRING IN A BAND OF STRONG 850 MB WARM ADVECTION AHEAD OF A COMPACT 500 MB SHORTWAVE. THIS SHORTWAVE LOOKS IMPRESSIVE ON WATER VAPOR IMAGERY AND HAS BEEN ASSOCIATED WITH LIGHTNING STRIKES OVER NE OKLAHOMA THIS MORNING. MODEL DIFFERENCES WITH RESPECT TO THIS SYSTEM ARE SUBTLE...BUT WOULD HAVE A BIG IMPACT ON SNOW AMOUNTS IN OUR AREA. ETA HAS SHIFTED THE TRACK OF THE SURFACE LOW NORTHWEST OF ANY PREVIOUS GUIDANCE...TAKING THE LOW NORTHEAST ACROSS THE MISSOURI BOOTHEEL AND THEN ALONG THE OHIO RIVER. THIS TRACK WOULD PUSH THE RAIN/SNOW LINE WELL BACK INTO THE CURRENT WARNING AREA. HOWEVER...NGM/GFS ARE CONSISTENT WITH A SURFACE LOW TRACK ROUGHLY FROM LITTLE ROCK TO HOPKINSVILLE. WILL LEAN TOWARD THE FURTHER SOUTH GFS...SINCE IT HAS SHOWN THE MOST RUN TO RUN CONSISTENCY. WILL LEAVE WARNING AND ADVISORY AREAS UNCHANGED. GFS QPF GUIDANCE HAS INCREASED TO AROUND ONE HALF INCH IN PARTS OF THE WARNING AREA. EXPECT SOME 6 INCH TOTALS IN THE HIGHER TERRAIN OF SE MISSOURI...NORTHEAST TO MDH/MVN AREAS. A SHARP GRADIENT IN SNOWFALL IS EXPECTED...WITH LESS THAN AN INCH IN THE HOPKINSVILLE AREA. CURRENT FORECAST APPEARS TO HAVE THE PRECIP TYPE HANDLED WELL. THE SURFACE WET BULB FREEZING LINE FROM THE AVN MODEL REMAINS NEARLY STATIONARY ACROSS THE ADVISORY AREA TONIGHT. WHERE PRECIP IS ALL RAIN...QPF WILL BE LESS THAN ONE HALF INCH AND NOT A FLOODING CONCERN. MONDAY WILL BE ONE OF THE FEW DRY PERIODS THIS WEEK AS COLD HIGH PRESSURE BUILDS SOUTHEAST ACROSS THE GREAT LAKES. LOW CLOUDS SHOULD CLEAR OUT SHORTLY BEFORE HIGH LEVEL MOISTURE INCREASES AHEAD OF THE NEXT SHORTWAVE. AREAS WITH FRESH SNOWCOVER WILL BE NEAR THE COLDER AVN MOS TEMP GUIDANCE. MODELS CONTINUE TO SHOW A PROLONGED PERIOD OF LIGHT WINTER PRECIP CHANCES MONDAY NIGHT THROUGH WEDNESDAY NIGHT. RATHER WEAK 700 MB SHORTWAVE TROUGH WILL MOVE EAST ACROSS THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI VALLEY MONDAY NIGHT. THIS MAY SPREAD SOME LIGHT SNOW INTO SOUTHERN KENTUCKY AND FAR SOUTHERN MISSOURI...BUT MODEL QPF GUIDANCE INDICATES NO MORE THAN AN INCH. FOR TUESDAY AND TUESDAY NIGHT...THE GFS AGAIN CONTINUES TO PAINT SOME VERY LIGHT QPF OVER THE FORECAST AREA...EVEN THOUGH LIFTING MECHANISMS ARE DIFFICULT TO FIND. WILL CONTINUE VERY LOW CHANCE POPS FOR THOSE PERIODS. THE HIGHER PRECIP CHANCES WILL BE WEDNESDAY AND WEDNESDAY NIGHT AS A FAIRLY STRONG 500 MB SHORTWAVE TRACKS EAST FROM THE PLAINS STATES. GFS HAS BEEN TRENDING COLDER WITH EACH RUN...AS IT TRACKS A SURFACE LOW WELL TO THE SOUTH OF THE KENTUCKY BORDER. THIS WOULD MEAN A FROZEN OR FREEZING PRECIP EVENT FOR THE NORTHERN ZONES...AND RAIN OR FREEZING PRECIP IN THE SOUTH. SINCE THE EUROPEAN MODEL CONTINUES TO DEPICT CONSIDERABLY HIGHER THICKNESSES...WILL LEAVE GENERIC RAIN OR SNOW CHANCES IN THE FORECAST FOR WEDNESDAY. GFS INDICATES A PROCESSION OF WEAK SHORTWAVES COMING THROUGH LATE IN THE WEEK INTO THE WEEKEND...WITH THICKNESSES MARGINAL FOR PRECIP TYPE. QPF LOOKS TO BE LIGHT IF THERE IS ANY. WILL FOLLOW HPC GUIDANCE FOR PRECIP CHANCES IN DAYS 5 THROUGH 7. COORDINATION WITH MEM. .PAH...WINTER STORM WARNING TONIGHT NORTH OF A LINE FROM POPLAR BLUFF MO...CAPE GIRARDEAU MO...EVANSVILLE IN. WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY TONIGHT FROM POPLAR BLUFF MO TO PADUCAH KY TO OWENSBORO KY. MY
ILZ075>078-080>094-INZ081-082-085>088-KYZ001>022-MOZ076-086-087-100- 107>112-114-241100- HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PADUCAH KY 500 AM CST SUN FEB 23 2003 ...WINTER STORM WARNING THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT FOR NORTHERN PORTIONS OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI...AND MUCH OF SOUTHERN ILLINOIS AND SOUTHWEST INDIANA... ...WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT FOR SOUTHERN PORTIONS OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI...THE REMAINDER OF SOUTHERN ILLINOIS AND SOUTHWEST INDIANA...AND PORTIONS OF WESTERN KENTUCKY... THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR SOUTHEAST MISSOURI...SOUTHERN ILLINOIS...SOUTHWEST INDIANA AND WESTERN KENTUCKY. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT ACCUMULATING SNOWS WILL RETURN ACROSS ALL OF THE QUAD STATE REGION...EXCEPT FOR SOUTHERN PORTIONS OF WESTERN KENTUCKY...THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT. SIGNIFICANT ACCUMULATIONS OF SNOW ARE EXPECTED...ESPECIALLY ACROSS THE NORTHERN HALF OF THE AREA WHERE A WINTER STORM WARNING HAS BEEN ISSUED. A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY HAS BEEN ISSUED FOR THE AREA IMMEDIATELY SOUTH OF THE WARNING. FOR MORE DETAILS ON THIS DEVELOPING WINTER STORM...PLEASE REFERENCE THE NWS PRODUCT /WSWPAH/. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...MONDAY THROUGH SATURDAY THERE WILL BE A CHANCE FOR MORE SNOW ACROSS THE QUAD STATE ON TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY...AS A SERIES OF WEAK DISTURBANCES SWEEP ACROSS THE AREA. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTERS...EMERGENCY MANAGERS...AND OTHER OBSERVERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO RELAY REPORTS OF SNOW AMOUNTS SUNDAY AFTERNOON AND SUNDAY NIGHT. DRS
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 flood. Local standard time, as filed.
Minor flooding of the Little Wabash River occurred in the Carmi area. The flood crest of 28.1 feet on February 28 was about one foot over flood stage. A number of county roads were flooded, creating problems for oil field pumpers.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Illinois in 2003Every state in 2003This day in weather historyWarnings in Illinois, 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: 5341092.