Name: Hail and Damaging Wind in Delaware, July 3, 2002
Start: 2002-07-03T15:29
End: 2002-07-03T16:05
Location: Delaware

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.

Tornadoes
Tropical storms and surge
Floods
Wind
Hail
Winter weather
Heat and drought
Cold
Fire, smoke and dust
Marine and coastal
Other

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The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: None recorded
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 2

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.

What happened

The episode as NWS PHI wrote it up.

A severe thunderstorm dropped a swath of quarter to golf ball size hail across southwest Sussex County from Laurel south to Delmar. The same storm also knocked down a couple of trees in Little Creek Hundred. One downed tree blocked the intersection of County Roads 64 and 66 in the Ward section of the hundred.

What forecasters said that day

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 Philadelphia/Mount Holly wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jul 3, 2:40 PM EST, 49 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jul 3, 2:40 PM EST, 49 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MOUNT HOLLY NJ
340 PM EDT WED JUL 3 2002

WILL MENTION MIN CHC TSTM THIS EVNG SRN ZNS BASED ON CRNT
CONDS...OTRW UNLESS TSTMS BEGIN TO POP WITHIN THE NEXT 1/2
HOUR...WILL NOT MENTION ANY OTHER AREAS. WARNINGS AND ADVISORIES
WILL REMAIN THE SAME. MODELS HAVE FRONT DROPPING DOWN ACROSS THE FA
THU AFTN AND EVNG. POPS REMAIN LOW BUT FRONT WILL ACT AS
A TRIGGER...SO WILL CARRY CHC OF AFTN/EVNG SHWRS/TSTMS.
COOLER DRIER AIR WILL FOLLOW THE FRONT. LOOKS LIKE ANOTHER
FAIR WX WEEKEND.

ALLS QUIET IN OUR MARINE AREAS

.PHI...
DE...EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING THROUGH THU FOR ZONE DEZ001.
HEAT ADVISORY THROUGH THU FOR ZONES DEZ002>003.

MD...HEAT ADVISORY THROUGH THU FOR ZONES MDZ008...MDZ012...
MDZ015...MDZ019>020.

NJ...EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING THROUGH THU FOR ZONES NJZ015...
NJZ017>019.
HEAT ADVISORY THROUGH THU FOR ZONES NJZ012>013...
NJZ016...NJZ020>023...NJZ027.
HEAT ADVISORY INTO THU AFTN FOR ZONES NJZ007>010.

PA...EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING THROUGH THU FOR ZONES PAZ067>071.
HEAT ADVISORY INTO THU AFTN FOR ZONES PAZ060>062.

MARINE...NONE.

RPW

The radar

The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 hail, 1 thunderstorm wind. Local standard time, as filed.

Hail, Sussex

When: July 3, 3:29 PM EST to 4:05 PM EST
Where: Sussex County, 2 mi W of Laurel
Measured: 1.75 in hail
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER
Coordinates: 38.550, -75.600

Thunderstorm Wind, Sussex

When: July 3, 3:45 PM EST
Where: Sussex County, 4 mi NE of Delmar
Measured: 50 kt (58 mph)
Reported by: LAW ENFORCEMENT
Coordinates: 38.483, -75.517

What these are

Hail: Hail three-quarters of an inch or larger, or smaller hail that caused damage, filed with the largest stone measured.
Thunderstorm Wind: Winds from a thunderstorm of 50 knots (58 mph) or more, or lower winds that caused damage or casualties. Measured gusts are marked MG, estimated EG.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

More

Every storm in Delaware in 2002 Every state in 2002 This day in weather history Warnings in Delaware, July 2002

Sources

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: 5308427, 5308428.