1 cold/wind chill, as filed by the National Weather Service.
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 Bismarck, ND wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Feb 13, 1:55 AM CST, 12 hours 3 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BISMARCK ND 155 AM CST THU FEB 13 2003 FOR A STARTING POINT HAVE POPULATED GRIDDED DATA WITH AVN MOS FOR TEMPERATURES AND LEANED TO NGM MOS FOR CLOUD COVER. THIS DUE TO THEIR BETTER PERFORMANCE RECENTLY IN THESE RESPECTIVE AREAS. FORECAST PROBLEM TODAY IS TEMPERATURES. THIS DUE TO BAND OF LOWER LEVEL CLOUDS OVER THE EASTERN AREAS BRINGING INTO QUESTION THE AMOUNT OF SUNSHINE TO EXPECT...COUPLED WITH TEMPERATURES STARTING OUT CONSIDERABLY AHEAD OF WHERE THEY WERE 24 HOURS AGO...AND A FEW DEGREES OF WARMING AT THE LOWER LEVELS THROUGH THE DAY IN THE WEST. WILL EXPECT AN INCREASING SOUTHEAST WIND TODAY...TO 20 MPH BY LATE DAY...TO KEEP THE LOWER LEVELS STIRRED. THESE FACTORS SHOULD RESULT IN HIGHS BEING THE SAME OR JUST AHEAD OF WEDNESDAYS. LONGER TERM PROBLEMS ARE WHETHER OR NOT TO INCLUDE FLURRIES FOR FRIDAY IN THE COLD ADVECTION BEHIND EXITING SURFACE LOW TO THE SOUTH. FRIDAY WILL BE 10-15 DEGREES COLDER THAN TODAY AND FLURRIES WILL PROBABLY BE SCATTERED OVER THE AREA...INSIGNIFICANT. STRONGER ENERGY WORKS THROUGH THE MID LEVEL ROCKY MOUNTAIN RIDGE BY SATURDAY WITH A BETTER CHANCE FOR SOME MEASURABLE SNOW. AN INCH OR SO OF SNOW WILL BE POSSIBLE. THE BIGGER CONCERN IS THE WARM ADVECTION AS THE RIDGE MOVES INTO THE NORTHERN PLAINS ON SUNDAY. ENOUGH WARMING IS FORECAST BY THE AVN MODEL TO BRING INTO QUESTION PRECIPITATION TYPE. WE NEED TO BE CAREFUL NOT TO GET TOO SPECIFIC WITH DETAILS FOUR DAYS OUT...AS THOSE SPECIFICS WOULD MORE THAN LIKELY CHANGE OVER THE NEXT FEW DAYS. LATEST MODEL RUNS SUPPORT THIS PHILOSOPHY AS THE BEST CHANCES FOR PRECIPITATION HAVE SHIFTED FROM MONDAY TO SUNDAY NIGHT WITH THE PASSAGE OF THE RIDGE AXIS AND SHORT WAVE ENERGY ON ITS HEELS. WITH PASSAGE OF SURFACE LOW TO THE NORTH ANY AMOUNTS SHOULD BE SMALL...BUT EVEN SMALL AMOUNTS OF FREEZING RAIN CAUSE TROUBLE. FRIDAY INTO SATURDAY WILL BE THE COLDEST PERIOD OF THE NEXT 7 DAYS. .BIS...NONE. JP MARTIN
NDZ001>005-009>013-017>023-025-031>037-040>048-050-051-141100- HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BISMARCK ND 530 AM CST THU FEB 13 2003 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR WESTERN AND CENTRAL NORTH DAKOTA. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...FRIDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. THERE IS A CHANCE OF SNOW ON SATURDAY...AND SNOW AND RAIN ARE POSSIBLE LATER SUNDAY INTO MONDAY...BUT ANY AMOUNTS SHOULD BE INSIGNIFICANT. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION IS NOT ANTICIPATED. JP MARTIN
1 cold/wind chill. Local standard time, as filed.
A young woman died of hperthermia approxiately several days before finding her body in a open field near her home. Time of death is unknown. The young woman was intoxicated when she left her home. Nearby weather reporting stations indicated overnight lows between 10 to 20 below zero prior to finding her body.
As the offices recorded each death: direct deaths were caused by the weather itself, indirect ones by something it set in motion.
| Event | Date | Age | Sex | Where | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cold/Wind Chill, Sioux | 2003-02-13 | 16 | Female | Outside/Open Areas | Direct |
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in North Dakota in 2003Every state in 2003This day in weather historyWarnings in North Dakota, 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: 5340888.