1 lightning, as filed by the National Weather Service.
Every event with a place to put it; 1 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
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 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 Birmingham, AL wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jul 23, 1:35 PM CST, 7 hours 10 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BIRMINGHAM, AL 235 PM CDT TUE JUL 23 2002 SURFACE FRONT LOCATED ACROSS SRN MO/IL/IN WILL CONTINUE TO MOVE SLOWLY SE AND PROBABLY JUST NOSE INTO THE TN VLY ON WED/WED NITE. MODELS SHOW UPPER LOW ACROSS PORTIONS OF GEORGIA...MOVING WESTWARD AND LOOSING ITS IDENTITY. IN ADDITION...MODELS SHOW SEVERAL IMPULSES MOVING FROM NW TO SE INTO THE NRN SECTIONS OF THE AREA LATE TONIGHT AND DURING THE DAY ON WED. WILL GO WITH MAINLY SCATTERED POPS OVERNIGHT...THEN LIKELY POPS NORTH/CENTRAL WED WITH SLIGHTLY LOWER POPS SOUTH. FOR WED NITE INTO THURSDAY...MODELS SHOW SURFACE LOW DEVELOPING ACROSS THE NORTHWEST CORNER IN VICINITY OF THE FRONT AND A SHORT WAVE ACROSS MUCH OF THE AREA AT 500 MB. GIVEN INCREASING VERTICAL MOTION AND MSTR CONVERGENCE ACROSS THE AREA WILL GO WITH SCATTERED POPS WED NITE AND THEN LIKELY POPS ALL SECTIONS ON THURSDAY. UPPER TROF WILL SHIFT NORTH/EAST OF THE AREA ON FRIDAY AND SOEMWHAT DRIER AIR WILL SPREAD INTO THE AREA FOR THE WEEKEND AND THE FIRST PART OF NEXT WEEK. MAY NEED TO INCREASE POPS TNGT JUST BEFORE RELEASE. HSV 72/88/71/87/71 5656 BHM 71/89/72/87/72 4646 MGM 72/90/73/89/72 3536 .BHM...NONE.
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 lightning. Local standard time, as filed.
A lightning strike caused significant damage to an Opelika Power Substation. The lightning set a fire in the substation in which flames reached heights of over 50 feet. Six hundred gallons of mineral oil subsequently leaked out of the substation.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Alabama in 2002Every state in 2002This day in weather historyWarnings in Alabama, July 2002
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: 5306613.