A backcountry skier was buried by an avalanche; the incident occurred near Zimmerman Lake and Montgomery Pass Trail, west of Fort Collins. The skier's friends found him and dug him out, estimating that he was buried for about 10 minutes before they freed him.
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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 BOU wrote it up.
A backcountry skier was buried by an avalanche; the incident occurred near Zimmerman Lake and Montgomery Pass Trail, west of Fort Collins. The skier's friends found him and dug him out, estimating that he was buried for about 10 minutes before they freed him. He was buried under 3 feet of snow. They performed CPR on him and had him breathing when rescuers arrived. The man died after being in a coma for several days.
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 Dec 2, 3:00 AM MST, 11 hours 30 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DENVER CO 300 AM MST SUN DEC 02 2007 .SHORT TERM...WATER VAPOR IMAGERY SHOWING UPPER LEVEL WAVE MOVING ACROSS CENTRAL CO ATTM. LATEST RUC VERTICAL VELOCITY FIELDS SHOWING A SUBSIDENT AIRMASS WILL WORK ACROSS THE AREA THRU THE AM. SHSN IN THE MTNS ALREADY ON THE DECREASE BUT SOME LOW LVL MSTR AND OROGRAPHIC FLOW WILL KEEP SOME SCT SHSN ONGOING THRU THE MORNING HOURS. WILL LET ALL ADVISORIES EXPIRE WITH THE MORNING FCST PACKAGE AS ANY ADDITIONAL SNOWFALL WILL BE QUITE LIGHT. ACROSS ERN CO...QUITE A BIT OF LOW LVL MSTR REMAINS UNDER STRONG LOW LVL INVERSIONS. FCST SOUNDINGS INDICATE LOW STRATUS WILL BE WITH US THRU ABOUT 15Z...THEN DIMINISHING AS STRONGER NW FLOW PATTERN SETS UP AND LOW LVLS BEGIN TO WARM UP. GUSTY WINDS WILL ALSO BE INCREASING OVER THE HIGHER MTNS LATER TDY AND TNT AND COULD SEE SOME GUSTS UP AROUND 60 MPH AND 40-50 MPH GUSTS IN THE FOOTHILLS TNT. WILL NOT ISSUE ANY HI WIND HILITES THIS TIME AROUND. .LONG TERM...A FLAT UPPER LEVEL RIDGE WILL BE OVER THE AREA ON MON WITH WLY FLOW ALOFT. WITH LOW LEVEL DOWNSLOPE FLOW DEVELOPING THIS SHOULD ALLOW FOR AFTN HIGHS TO BE 15 TO 20 DEGREES WARMER OVER NERN CO AS 850-700 MB TEMPS RISE FROM 8 TO 10 DEGREES C. FOR MON NIGHT INTO TUE LATEST CROSS-SECTIONS FROM WRF SHOW POTENTIAL FOR A HIGH WIND EVENT IN AND NR THE FOOTHILLS AS MTN WAVE DEVELOPS WITH COMPONENT ALONG WINDS INCREASING TO 55 TO 60 KTS IN THE 06Z-18Z TIMEFRAME. CONFIDENCE IS NOT HIGH ENOUGH TO ISSUE A WATCH AS OF YET AND WILL LEAVE THAT UP TO THE NEXT SHIFT. MEANWHILE SOME INCREASE IN MID AND HIGH LEVEL MOISTURE IS FCST TO OCCUR HOWEVER WITH WARM MID LEVEL TEMPS AND LACK OF INSTABILITY BELIEVE MTNS WILL STAY DRY ON TUE. TEMPS ON TUE SHOULD BE WARMER THAN MON BASED ON A 2-3 DEGREE RISE IN 850-700 MB TEMPS AND CONTINUATION OF LOW LEVEL DOWNSLOPE COMPONENT ALTHOUGH IF MID AND HIGH LEVEL CLOUD COVER IS EXTENSIVE THAT COULD ALTER HIGHS SOMEWHAT. ON WED WNW FLOW ALOFT WILL BE OVER THE AREA WITH CROSS-SECTIONS SHOWING QUITE A BIT OF MID AND HIGH LEVEL MOISTURE. LAPSE RATES STILL ARE RATHER STABLE ON WED SO WILL CONTINUE WITH LOW POPS IN THE MTNS. OVER NERN CO APPEARS A WEAK FNT WILL AFFECT THE AREA WHICH WILL BRING IN COOLER TEMPS HOWEVER READINGS WILL STILL BE ABOVE NORMAL. FOR WED NIGHT INTO THU AN UPPER LEVEL TROUGH WILL MOVE ACROSS THE RGN. WITH FAVORABLE ORGOGRPAHIC COMPONENT AND IMPROVING LAPSE RATES ALONG WITH SOME QG ASCENT THIS SHOULD LEAD TO A DECENT CHC OF SNOW IN THE NRN MTNS. IN ADDITION WITH UPPER LEVEL JET OVER AREA COULD SEE SOME ENHANCMENT DUE TO BANDED PCPN. OVER NERN CO THE FCST IS A BIT TRICKY WED NIGHT INTO THU. LATEST GFS IS SHOWING A SFC LOW DEVELOPING OVER SERN CO BY 12Z THU WITH A CDFNT MOVING INTO THE AREA THU AFTN. CURRENTLY THE GFS IS SHOWING MORE OF A NWLY LOW LEVEL WIND COMPONENT HOWEVER IT WOULD NOT SURPRISE ME IF THE LOW LEVEL WINDS HAVE MORE OF AN UPSLOPE COMPONENT DURING THE DAY ON THU. IF THAT IS THE CASE THEN COULD SEE A CHC OF SNOW OVER NERN CO DUE TO DECENT LAPSE RATES AND FAVORABLE QG ASCENT ALONG WITH SOME BANDED PCPN DUE TO LOCATION OF UPEPR LEVEL JET. MEANWHILE IF CDFNT COMES IN QUICKER THAN GFS SHOWS TEMPS ON THU WILL BE MUCH COOLER ACROSS NERN CO AS WELL. BY FRI THE LATEST GFS SHOWS A DEEPENING TROUGH OVER THE WRN US WITH SWLY FLOW ALOFT DEVELOPING ACROSS COLORADO WHICH MATCHES UP WELL WITH THE ECMWF. ALTHOUGH BOTH MODELS SHOW QUITE A BIT OF MOISTURE IN THE MTNS WARMING MID LEVEL TEMPS AND UNFAVORABLE OROGRAPHIC COMPONENT WOULD LIKELY KEEP ANY SNOW ON THE LIGHT SIDE IN THE MTNS. OVER NERN CO BOTH GFS AND ECMWF WANT TO ERODE SFC HIGH PRESSURE OVER NERN CO ON FRI AS A SFC LEE TROUGH DEVELOPS WHICH LEADS TO WARMER TEMPS. NOT TOTALLY CONVINCED THE AREA OF SFC HIGH PRESSURE WILL ERODE AS QUICKLY AS BOTH MODELS SHOW WITH MAIN UPPER LEVEL TROUGH STILL WELL WEST OF THE AREA SO TEMPS MAY NOT WARM AS MUCH AS THE MODELS INDICATE. && .AVIATION...WIDESPREAD IFR/LIFR CIG CONDITIONS ACROSS LOCAL AIRPORTS WILL REMAIN UNTIL 13Z...THEN GRADUALLY DISSIPATING AROUND 15Z AS TROF MOVES EAST AND NW WINDS DEVELOP OVER THE FRONT RANGE. VFR CONDITIONS WILL RETURN FOR THE REST OF THE FCST PRD THRU MONDAY. && .BOU WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...NONE && SWE/RPK
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DENVER CO 1059 AM MST SUN DEC 02 2007 COZ030>051-031300- JACKSON COUNTY BELOW 9000 FEET-WEST JACKSON AND WEST GRAND COUNTIES ABOVE 9000 FEET-GRAND AND SUMMIT COUNTIES BELOW 9000 FEET-SOUTH AND EAST JACKSON/LARIMER/NORTH AND NORTHEAST GRAND/ NORTHWEST BOULDER COUNTIES ABOVE 9000 FEET-SOUTH AND SOUTHEAST GRAND/WEST CENTRAL AND SOUTHWEST BOULDER/GILPIN/CLEAR CREEK/ SUMMIT/NORTH AND WEST PARK COUNTIES ABOVE 9000 FEET-LARIMER AND BOULDER COUNTIES BETWEEN 6000 AND 9000 FEET-JEFFERSON AND WEST DOUGLAS COUNTIES ABOVE 6000 FEET/GILPIN/CLEAR CREEK/NORTHEAST PARK COUNTIES BELOW 9000 FEET-CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST PARK COUNTY-LARIMER COUNTY BELOW 6000 FEET/NORTHWEST WELD COUNTY-BOULDER AND JEFFERSON COUNTIES BELOW 6000 FEET/WEST BROOMFIELD COUNTY-NORTH DOUGLAS COUNTY BELOW 6000 FEET/DENVER/WEST ADAMS AND ARAPAHOE COUNTIES/ EAST BROOMFIELD COUNTY-ELBERT/CENTRAL AND EAST DOUGLAS COUNTIES ABOVE 6000 FEET-NORTHEAST WELD COUNTY-CENTRAL AND SOUTH WELD COUNTY-MORGAN COUNTY-CENTRAL AND EAST ADAMS AND ARAPAHOE COUNTIES- NORTH AND NORTHEAST ELBERT COUNTY BELOW 6000 FEET/NORTH LINCOLN COUNTY-SOUTHEAST ELBERT COUNTY BELOW 6000 FEET/SOUTH LINCOLN COUNTY-LOGAN COUNTY-WASHINGTON COUNTY-SEDGWICK COUNTY-PHILLIPS COUNTY- 1059 AM MST SUN DEC 02 2007 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR NORTHEAST AND NORTH CENTRAL COLORADO. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT STRONG WEST TO NORTHWEST WINDS WILL CONTINUE THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS TODAY AND TONIGHT. FAVORED WINDS AREAS...SUCH AS EXPOSED RIDGES AND EAST-WEST CANYONS MAY SEE WIND GUSTS AS HIGH AS 70 MPH. THE GUSTY WINDS WILL ALSO CAUSE BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...MONDAY THROUGH SATURDAY NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. GUSTY WEST WINDS WILL DEVELOP IN THE FOOTHILLS AND MOUNTAINS ON MONDAY AND CONTINUE THROUGH TUESDAY. THERE IS THE POTENTIAL FOR SOME HIGH WINDS MONDAY NIGHT INTO TUESDAY MORNING IN AND NEAR THE FOOTHILLS. MOISTURE WILL RETURN TO THE FORECAST AREA LATE TUESDAY WELL INTO THURSDAY. THAT ALONG WITH AN UPPER TROUGH WILL BRING A CHANCE OF PRECIPITATION TO THE FORECAST AREA...ESPECIALLY IN THE HIGH COUNTRY WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH THURSDAY. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION WILL NOT BE NEEDED TODAY OR TONIGHT. MEIER/RJK
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 avalanche. Local standard time, as filed.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Colorado in 2007Every state in 2007This day in weather historyWarnings in Colorado, December 2007
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: 61777.