An early spring snowstorm brought heavy snow to the Snake River Plain. Early morning snowfall totals were 5 inches at the Pocatello airport and Fort Hall.
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 PIH wrote it up.
An early spring snowstorm brought heavy snow to the Snake River Plain. Early morning snowfall totals were 5 inches at the Pocatello airport and Fort Hall. Six to 7 inches fell in Chubbuck with 6 to 8 inches on the Pocatello benches at elevations above 5,000 feet.
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 Pocatello, ID wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Apr 30, 1:44 PM MST, 10 hours 16 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE POCATELLO ID 244 PM MDT WED APR 30 2008 .SHORT TERM...UPPER LEVEL JET OF ABOUT 130KTS ON UPSTREAM SIDE OF TROUGH CONTINUES TO DIG THE TROUGH SOUTHWARD INTO GREAT BASIN. WINDS IN THE EASTERN MAGIC VALLEY AND LOWER SNAKE PLAIN ARE STRONGER THAN MODELS INDICATE BUT JUST SHORT OF A GENERAL WIND ADVISORY. THE LAKE WIND ADVISORY WAS EXTENDED UNTIL 7 PM THIS EVENING TO GIVE WINDS TIME TO DIE DOWN. VERY ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS DEVELOPED BRIEFLY IN THE UPPER SNAKE PLAIN THIS AFTERNOON AND SHOULD BE SHORT LIVED. STRONG UP VALLEY WINDS HAVE WORKED AGAINST THE TREND OF CONVERGENCE WIND BOUNDARY MOVING SOUTHWARD THIS AFTERNOON. AS WINDS DECREASE THIS EVENING THERE IS STILL A CHANCE OF SHOWERS AND THE CONVERGENCE BOUNDARY MOVING SOUTHWARD. THEREFORE KEPT POPS AND LIMITED SNOW ACCUMULATION IN THE FORECAST TONIGHT. A FEW MOUNTAIN SHOWERS LINGER IN THE UPPER SNAKE AND EASTERN HIGHLANDS THURSDAY UNDER NORTH FLOW BEFORE SHORT WAVE RIDGE CAN MOVE IN FRIDAY NIGHT BUT NO SIGNIFICANT PRECIPITATION IS EXPECTED. THE NEXT DISTURBANCE OFF THE PACIFIC SATURDAY COMES IN IN SPLIT FLOW PATTERN. MODELS AT THE MOMENT ARE DYNAMICALLY RATHER WEAK WITH IT AND ARE HAVING SOME TROUBLE FOCUSING PRECIPITATION ANYWHERE. LOOKS LIKE COLD AIR WILL FAVOR A SOUTHWARD DIGGING SOUTHERN BRANCH OF THE SPLIT. RS .LONG TERM...SATURDAY NIGHT THROUGH WEDNESDAY. SPLIT FLOW AFFECTING WRN US LEAVING SERN ID TO DEAL WITH INSTABILITY SHOWERS SAT NIGHT THRU MON MORNING AND CONSIDERABLE CLOUDINESS...QPF AMTS EXTREMELY LIGHT. UPPER LEVEL FLOW BECOMES ZONAL ALOFT WITH MINOR SHORTWAVES MOVING OVER CANADA BUT REACHING JUST S ENOUGH TO CLIP OUR AREA...THUS HAVE KEPT CLOUDS AND SHOWERY TYPE PRECIP IN FORECAST. THROUGHOUT FORECAST PERIOD...MARGINALLY UNSETTLED WEATHER WITHOUT STRONG RIDGING OR TROUGHING...EXPECT MOST AREAS TO HAVE TIMES OF CLOUDS AND SUN WITH PASSING SHOWERS AS INSTABILITY INCREASES WITH HEATING OF THE DAY. PRECIP CHANCES INCREASE OVER CENTRAL/ERN/SRN MTNS. RENWICK && .AVIATION...WINDS CURRENTLY GUSTING TO 35 MPH AT KPIH AND KBYI AND GUSTS TO 25 MPH AT KIDA ASSOCIATED WITH UPPER LEVEL TROUGH AND STRONG GRADIENT AT THE SFC. WINDS TO CONTINUE FOR THE NEXT SEVERAL HOURS AS TROUGH MOVES OVERHEAD AND FINALLY EXITS SERN ID. VFR CONDITIONS PREDOMINANT FOR ALL SITES WITH BROKEN CIGS OF 5000 FT OR HIGHER. HOWEVER...LATEST MODEL RUNS INDICATE POSSIBLE CONVERGENCE ZONE SETTING UP OVER SNAKE RIVER PLAIN. RADAR IMAGERY APPEARS TO SHOW BEGINNINGS OF SUCH AN EVENT. IF THIS OCCURS...MVFR TO IFR CONDITIONS NOT OUT OF THE QUESTION UNDER HEAVIER SNOW/RAIN SHOWERS FOR KIDA AND MOVING S TO POSSIBLY KPIH...WITH VFR CONDITIONS FOR REMAINING AREAS. RENWICK && .PIH WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... LAKE WIND ADVISORY UNTIL 8 PM MDT THIS EVENING FOR IDZ021. &&
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE POCATELLO ID 1043 AM MDT WED APR 30 2008 IDZ017>025-031-032-011200- EASTERN MAGIC VALLEY-SAWTOOTH MOUNTAINS-UPPER SNAKE HIGHLANDS- UPPER SNAKE RIVER PLAIN-LOWER SNAKE RIVER PLAIN- SOUTH CENTRAL HIGHLANDS-CARIBOU HIGHLANDS- CACHE VALLEY/IDAHO PORTION-WASATCH MOUNTAINS/IDAHO PORTION- BIG AND LITTLE WOOD RIVER REGION-LOST RIVER/PAHSIMEROI- 1043 AM MDT WED APR 30 2008 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR EASTERN IDAHO. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT A STATIONARY COLD FRONT WILL EXTEND FROM TWIN FALLS TO DRIGGS TODAY. THIS WILL CAUSE MODERATE WEST WINDS OF 15 TO 30 MPH IN THE EASTERN MAGIC VALLEY AND AREA OF AMERICAN FALLS RESERVOIR. THESE WINDS WILL MAKE BOATING OPERATIONS ON THE RESERVOIR HAZARDOUS. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...THURSDAY THROUGH TUESDAY NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... WE ASK TRAINED SPOTTERS AND CITIZENS TO REPORT SIGNIFICANT WEATHER CONDITIONS WHEN IT IS SAFE TO DO SO. THESE CONDITIONS MAY INCLUDE HAIL...TORNADOES...STRONG WIND...DUST STORMS...SNOWFALL... EXTREME COLD TEMPERATURES...FREEZING RAIN OR HEAVY RAIN...DENSE FOG...AND FLOODING OR ICE JAMS. INFORMATION ABOUT THESE HAZARDOUS CONDITIONS SHOULD BE CALLED INTO YOUR NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE OFFICE IN POCATELLO USING THE 1-800 SEVERE WEATHER HOTLINE...OR 208-233-0834.
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE POCATELLO/IDAHO FALLS ID
838 PM MDT WED APR 30 2008
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0339 PM HEAVY SNOW ISLAND PARK 44.56N 111.34W
04/30/2008 M3.0 INCH FREMONT ID TRAINED SPOTTER
AT THE RANGER STATION
0836 PM SLEET 4 S LORENZO 43.68N 111.89W
04/30/2008 M1.00 INCH JEFFERSON ID TRAINED SPOTTER
HEAVY SNOW FALL - 1/4 MILE VISIBILITY
&&
PANGEL1 heavy snow. Local standard time, as filed.
An early spring snowstorm brought heavy snow to the Snake River Plain. Early morning snowfall totals were 5 inches at the Pocatello airport and Fort Hall. Six to 7 inches fell in Chubbuck with 6 to 8 inches on the Pocatello benches at elevations above 5,000 feet.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Idaho in 2008Every state in 2008This day in weather historyWarnings in Idaho, May 2008
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: 105849.