1 thunderstorm wind, 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 Tampa Bay, FL wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Oct 23, 1:56 PM EST, 1 hour 19 minutes earlier.
WEST CENTRAL AND SOUTHWEST FLORIDA FORECAST DISCUSSION CORRECTED NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TAMPA BAY AREA - RUSKIN FL 256 PM EDT WED OCT 23 2002 CORRECTED TIME IN TIME/DAY LINE CURRENT...MOSTLY SUNNY ATTM BUT EXPECT PARTLY CLOUDY TO PREVAIL THROUGH AFTERNOON. A FEW SHOWERS ARE OVER THE NE CORNER OF THE CWFA. WINDS LIGHT MOSTLY EAST WITH A SE BREEZE ALONG OUR SW COAST. TONIGHT-SAT...FEEL AVN MAY BE GOING OVERBOARD BUT IT HAS TRACKED THE 2 WEAK SHORT WAVES TROUGHS/ CENTRAL AND WESTERN GULF COAST/ BETTER AND IS SLOWER AND MORE REASONABLE WITH WEAK SURFACE FEATURE TRACKING OVER CENTRAL/EAST GULF. SO WILL LEAN TOWARD ITS SOLUTION. OLD BOUNDARY ACROSS NORTHERN FL LIFTS NORTH AS SURFACE RIDGE STARTS TO BUILD INTO CENTRAL FL AS FIRST S/W TROUGH MOVES TOWARD AND OVER WEST FL COAST THU MORNING...DAMPENING OUT SOME WITH UPPER RIDGE PARKED TO OUR SOUTH. HOWEVER THIS SYSTEM APPEARS STRONG ENOUGH FOR SOME POSSIBLE STRONG STORMS IN THE MORNING AND WILL CONFER WITH THE ON COMING SHIFT ABOUT THE NEED FOR A MORE DEFINITE STATEMENT. WILL KEEP POPS 50 NORTH...40 CENTRAL AND 30 SOUTH W/O TIMING DURING THU AND THEN TRIM POPS BACK SOME GOING INTO THU NIGHT. SECOND S/W TROUGH...WHILE THE STRONGER ONE NOW...IS EXPECTED TO FOLLOW THE SAME TRACK AND COME ACROSS OUR NORTH AND CENTRAL CWFA LATE THU NIGHT OR EARLY FRIDAY ALONG WITH A WEAK SURFACE LOW. AGAIN...WITH RIDGE TO OUR SOUTH...SYSTEM WEAKENS AND WILL KEEPS POPS 40 TO 20 FROM NORTH TO SOUTH. CLOUDY TO MOSTLY CLOUDY TO CONTINUE INTO LATE FRI/EARLY SAT BEFORE CLEARING SOME. TEMPS REMAIN WARM AND WILL BLEND AVN/ETA MOS AND GO ON THE HIGH SIDE. MARINE(TONIGHT-MON)...NO PROBLEMS WITH WINDS 10KTS OR LESS THROUGH PERIOD AS WINDS COME ALL THE WAY AROUND AS SYSTEMS MOVE THROUGH. SUN-WED...NEXT FRONT MOVES INTO NORTHERN FL SATURDAY AND STALLS THERE THROUGH SUNDAY WITH LOW LEVEL FLOW BRIDGING THE FRONT AND BECOMING EASTERLY. FRONT LIFTS NORTH MONDAY AS ANOTHER FRONT PUSHES INTO THE GULF TUESDAY AND REACHES NORTH BY DURING WEDNESDAY. WITH THE CWFA REMAINING IN THE WARM SECTOR WILL KEEPS TEMPS SLIGHTLY ABOVE CLIMO ALONG WITH LOW POPS AND PARTLY CLOUDY. PRELIM NUMBERS... BKV 066/084 067/085 066 4544 TPA 071/085 072/086 071 4443 GIF 069/086 069/087 070 4443 SRQ 070/086 070/086 070 3433 FMY 071/087 071/087 070 3323 .TBW...NONE. 09/RKR
FLZ039-042-043-048>052-055>057-060>062-065-231300- HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TAMPA BAY AREA - RUSKIN FL 555 AM EDT WED OCT 23 2002 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR WEST CENTRAL AND SOUTHWEST FLORIDA. .DAY ONE...TODAY: THE APPROACH OF AN UPPER ATMOSPHERIC DISTURBANCE WILL INCREASE THE PROSPECTS FOR SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS OVER THE AREA LATER TODAY. THUNDERSTORMS MAY BEGIN TO DEVELOP AS EARLY AS 2 TO 3 PM ...BECOMING MORE NUMEROUS IN COVERAGE DURING THE LATE AFTERNOON INTO EARLY TONIGHT. HEAVIER THUNDERSTORMS WILL GENERATE BRIEF GUSTY WINDS UP TO 35 MPH AND TEMPORARY DOWNPOURS. DANGEROUS LIGHTNING WILL POSE A SERIOUS THREAT IN THE VICINITY OF THUNDERSTORMS. .SPOTTER CALL TO ACTION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION IS NOT EXPECTED. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...THURSDAY THROUGH TUESDAY: ISOLATED TO WIDELY SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS ALONG WITH AREAS OF PATCHY LATE NIGHT FOG WILL BE POSSIBLE EACH DAY.
The Tampa radar (KTBW), 74 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 20:16 UTC.
1 thunderstorm wind. Local standard time, as filed.
Estimated 50 mph (43 knot) winds at the Dawn Heights mobile home park produced minor damage to awnings, porches, and windows.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Florida in 2002Every state in 2002This day in weather historyWarnings in Florida, October 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: 5318891.