A magnetic cloud associated with the 1997 January 6 halo coronal mass ejection (CME) impacted the magnetosphere on January 10. With the WIND solar wind observations we make predictions 1--3 hours ahead of the magnetospheric response (Dst) to the halo-CME event. The recently developed neural network models with different solar wind input parameters are applied in this study. A major geomagnetic storm triggered by the cloud is accurately predicted by the models with inputs: (a) P1/2, VBz, (b) B, N, V, Bs, and (c) B, By, Bz, N, V. Further, the three models can predict the effect of the density enhancement at the rear of the cloud which might be associated with the disappearing filament observed on January 6, 1997. ¿ 1998 American Geophysical Union