1 heavy snow, 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 Cleveland, OH wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jan 10, 10:07 AM EST, 2 hours 53 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CLEVELAND OH
1007 AM EST FRI JAN 10 2003
WILL ONLY MAKE A FEW CHANGES TO CURRENT FCST. NO ADJST TO WARNING
AND ADVSRY AREAS BUT WILL BUMP ACCUM UP A LITTLE LATE THIS AFTN.
CONCERN THAT LK EFFCT COULD CUT ACROSS NRN PORTIONS OF SUMMIT AND
PORTAGE CTYS AND WILL MENTION SOME HIGHER ACCUM THERE. LATEST DATA
INDICATES HEAVIEST SNOW POTENTIAL AFTER 3 OR 4 PM.
.CLE...
OH...LK EFFECT SNOW WRNG FRI AFTN THRU FRI NGT EXTREME NE OH
OHZ011>014-089.
...LK EFCT SNOW ADVSRY FRI AFTN THRU FRI NITE OHZ023.
PA...LK EFFECT SNOW WRNG FRI AFTN THRU FRI NGT NW PA PAZ001>003.
BMOHZ003-006>014-017>023-027>033-036>038-047-089-PAZ001>003-101200- HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CLEVELAND OH 508 AM EST FRI JAN 10 2003 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR MUCH OF NORTHERN OHIO AND A PORTION OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA. .DAY ONE...TODAY ARCTIC AIR WILL CAUSE LAKE EFFECT SNOW SHOWERS TO DEVELOP THIS AFTERNOON AND CONTINUE TONIGHT. LOCALLY SIGNIFICANT SNOW ACCUMULATIONS MAY OCCUR MAKING DRIVING HAZARDOUS. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON A LAKE EFFECT SNOW WARNING FOR THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT IS CONTAINED IN THE CLEWSWCLE PRODUCT. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN... DEPENDING ON WIND DIRECTIONS AND OTHER FACTORS...SOME LOCATIONS MAY CONTINUE TO SEE LOCALLY HEAVY LAKE EFFECT SNOWS THROUGH THE WEEKEND AND AGAIN BY THE MIDDLE OF NEXT WEEK. .SPOTTER CALL TO ACTION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION WILL NOT BE NEEDED TODAY OR TONIGHT BUT SNOWFALL REPORTS FROM SPOTTERS LATE TODAY THROUGH THE WEEKEND WILL BE HELPFUL. ADAMS
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 heavy snow. Local standard time, as filed.
Arctic air moving across Lake Erie caused lake effect snow showers to develop around midday. Between 6 and 7 inches of snow was reported across inland sections of Ashtabula County by late evening.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Ohio in 2003Every state in 2003This day in weather historyWarnings in Ohio, January 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: 5339403.