A Pacific storm brought heavy snow to the southern mountains of Idaho with several locations measuring 10 to 15 inches.
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.
A Pacific storm brought heavy snow to the southern mountains of Idaho with several locations measuring 10 to 15 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 Pocatello, ID wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Feb 8, 3:24 AM MST, 2 hours 36 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE POCATELLO ID 324 AM MST FRI FEB 8 2013 .SHORT TERM...TODAY THROUGH SUNDAY NIGHT. UPPER LEVEL LOW AT 500 MILLIBARS STILL FORECAST TO DROP SOUTH TO CENTRAL CALIFORNIA THEN TURN NORTHEAST INTO NORTHEAST UTAH OR SOUTHWEST WYOMING BY NOON SATURDAY. GFS SLIGHTLY FURTHER NORTH WITH TRACK AND NAM WITH THE MORE SOUTHERLY TRACK. DIFFICULT FORECAST AS MODELS HAVE VERY SHARP PRECIPITATION GRADIENT BETWEEN HEAVIEST PRECIPITATION AND NO PRECIPITATION. SLIGHT DIFFERENCES IN TRACK OF STORM WILL SHIFT HEAVIEST PRECIPITATION AS WELL. FOR NOW APPEARS THE SOUTHERN MOUNTAINS WILL GET HIT THE HARDEST WITH THIS TRACKING OF UPPER AND SURFACE LOW PRESSURE SYSTEMS. RADAR SHOWING DECENT SNOW RIGHT NOW IN SOUTHWEST IDAHO INCLUDING BOISE. NAM WAS WAY OFF THIS SOLUTION AND GFS CLOSER BUT STILL TOO FAR SOUTH WITH PRECIPITATION. EUROPEAN WAY OFF AS WELL WITH THIS MORNINGS PRECIPITATION. SO WILL LEAN CLOSER TO GFS SOLUTION. WINTER STORM WARNINGS WILL REMAIN IN EFFECT FOR SOUTHERN MOUNTAINS WITH ADVISORIES IN SNAKE PLAIN...EASTERN MAGIC VALLEY AND CENTRAL MOUNTAINS. OVERALL 6 TO 14 INCHES IN SOUTHERN MOUNTAINS WITH 2 TO 5 IN SNAKE PLAIN AND EASTERN MAGIC VALLEY EXPECTED THROUGH SATURDAY AFTERNOON. THINK HEAVIEST SNOW WILL FALL LATE THIS AFTERNOON THROUGH TONIGHT THEN TAPERING OFF SATURDAY. FLOW TURNS TO COLD NORTHERLY AFTER THE LOW SHIFTS TO THE EAST SATURDAY AND A SECONDARY SYSTEM PUSHES SOUTH FROM CANADA SUNDAY WITH A CHANCE FOR VERY LIGHT SNOW SHOWERS BUT NO SIGNIFICANT SNOW EXPECTED WITH THIS SYSTEM. DO EXPECT MUCH COLDER TEMPERATURES TO MOVE IN SUNDAY. TEMPERATURES WILL BE NEAR NORMAL TODAY THEN COLDER ON SATURDAY AND SUNDAY DROPPING BELOW SEASONAL NORMALS. GK .LONG TERM...MONDAY THROUGH NEXT FRIDAY. GFS/ECMWF LOOK SIMILAR THROUGH WEDNESDAY AS A RIDGE REMAINS POSITIONED OFF THE CALIFORNIA COAST AND THE NEXT PAC SHORT-WAVE TOPS THE RIDGE AND DIGS SE INTO THE NRN ROCKIES/WRN MONTANA BY WEDNESDAY. BOTH MODELS SUPPORT A DRY AND COLD LOOKING FORECAST UNTIL TUESDAY AFTERNOON WHEN THE PCPN POTENTIAL INCREASES INTO WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON WITH THE APPROACH OF THE NEXT SYSTEM. BOTH MODELS SPREAD THE INITIAL WAVE EAST OF THE REGION WEDNESDAY NIGHT/THURSDAY WHILE A SECONDARY IMPULSE DROPS INTO THE WRN PORTION OF THE TROUGH CARVING OUT MORE AREA ACROSS THE NRN ROCKIES/NRN GREAT BASIN. THE GFS IS A LITTLE MORE AGGRESSIVE IN THIS REGARD BOTH IN TIMING AND WRN TRACK OF THE TROUGH WHEREAS THE ECMWF DRIVES THE WAVE SE INTO WYOMING. HAVE GENERALLY MAINTAINED SOME FAIRLY DECENT PRECIPITATION CHANCES ACROSS THE REGION DUE TO THE PASSING WAVE ALLOWING SOME CLEARING FRIDAY/FRIDAY NIGHT AS A PROGRESSIVE SHORT-WAVE RIDGE TRANSITIONS INTO THE REGION. HUSTON && .AVIATION...A PAC LOW WAS DIGGING SE THROUGH NRN CALIFORNIA EARLY THIS MORNING AND IS EXPECTED TO ROTATE INTO SOUTH-CNTRL NEVADA LATER THIS AFTERNOON. ACCOMPANYING SHOWER ACTIVITY WILL INCREASE ACROSS THE REGION THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING AS THE LOW SLOWLY LIFTS ENE INTO SRN UTAH BY SATURDAY MORNING. MODEL CROSS SECTIONS SUGGEST LOWER VFR CIGS THIS MORNING FOLLOWED BY DEEPER MOISTURE WITH WIDESPREAD MVFR CIGS LATER THIS AFTERNOON/EVE. THE INFLUX OF SHOWERS WILL LIKELY GENERATE PERIODS OF IFR CIGS/VIS AT KPIH AND KBYI. HUSTON && .PIH WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY UNTIL 5 PM MST SATURDAY IDZ017-021-024. WINTER STORM WARNING UNTIL 5 PM MST SATURDAY IDZ022-023-025. WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY UNTIL 5 AM MST SATURDAY ABOVE 7000 FEET FOR THE IDZ018-031. &&
3 heavy snow. Local standard time, as filed.
A spotter reported 10 inches of snow 6 miles west southwest of Malta. Bostetter Ranger Station reported 13 inches of snow. Howell Canyon had 14 inches and Oxford Springs had 13.
The Sedgwick Peak SNOTEL site reported 10 inches of snow.
Emigrant Summit measured 13 inches of snow.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Idaho in 2013Every state in 2013This day in weather historyWarnings in Idaho, February 2013
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: 436959, 436968, 436976.