A feed of Pacific moisture ahead of a deep low pressure system brought accumulating snow to elevations above 4500 feet in north central Idaho. The location most impacted was Lolo Pass where snow accumulations reached up to twenty four inches.
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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 MSO wrote it up.
A feed of Pacific moisture ahead of a deep low pressure system brought accumulating snow to elevations above 4500 feet in north central Idaho. The location most impacted was Lolo Pass where snow accumulations reached up to twenty four inches.
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 Missoula, MT wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Feb 23, 11:18 PM PST, 1 hour 42 minutes earlier.
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</html>The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 heavy snow. Local standard time, as filed.
The trained spotter at the Lolo Pass Visitor Center reported ten inches of snow accumulations by 4 pm PST. An additional fourteen inches was reported by the morning of the 25th, making a storm total snow amount of twenty four inches.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Idaho in 2009Every state in 2009This day in weather historyWarnings in Idaho, February 2009
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 2026-09-30. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 153654.