Name: Hail in Illinois, April 12, 2002
Start: 2002-04-12T16:52
End: 2002-04-12T16:52
Location: Illinois

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

Open the live radar over this ground

The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: None recorded
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 1

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 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 Paducah, KY wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Apr 12, 12:00 PM CST, 4 hours 52 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Apr 12, 12:00 PM CST, 4 hours 52 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PADUCAH KY
100 PM CDT FRI APR 12 2002

WEAK COLD FRONT WAS MOVING SLOWLY SOUTHEAST ACROSS MISSOURI AT
MIDDAY. RADAR AND SATELLITE TRENDS SHOWED LINES OF CONVECTION
FORMING ALONG AND AHEAD OF THE FRONT IN RATHER MOIST AND UNSTABLE
AIR MASS...WITH SFC DEW POINTS IN THE LOWER 60S. WATER VAPOR IMAGERY
INDICATED A 500 MB SHORTWAVE TROUGH OVER ERN KANSAS AND NEBRASKA.

500 MB SHORTWAVE WILL MOVE EAST ACROSS THE MID MISSISSIPPI VALLEY
THIS EVENING...PROVIDING SUPPORT FOR ORGANIZED CONVECTION. EXPECT
THE STORMS TO END OR DIMINISH AFTER MIDNIGHT AS THE BOUNDARY LAYER
COOLS AND THE BEST UPPER SUPPORT PASSES TO OUR EAST. THE SURFACE
FRONT IS PROGGED TO REACH THE LOWER OHIO VALLEY AROUND 06Z...AND
BECOME NEARLY STATIONARY THERE. GIVEN THE LINGERING HIGHER DEW
POINTS AND EXTENSIVE CLOUD COVER...BOTH NGM/AVN MOS LOWS APPEAR A
FEW DEGREES TOO COOL TONIGHT.

THE REMNANTS OF THE COLD FRONT ARE EXPECTED TO STALL OVER WEST
KENTUCKY EARLY SATURDAY. THE ETA COMPLETELY DISSIPATES THE FRONT
SATURDAY AFTERNOON...WHILE THE AVN AND NGM INDICATE SOME SEMBLANCE
OF A BOUNDARY. ETA MODEL SOUNDINGS INDICATE THE ATMOSPHERE WILL
AGAIN DESTABILIZE DURING THE DAY...WITH CAPES SIMILAR TO THIS
AFTERNOON. EVEN THOUGH THE SURFACE FRONT WILL BE WEAKER AND UPPER
FORCING WILL BE MINIMAL...WIDELY SCATTERED CONVECTION MAY FORM OVER
WEST KENTUCKY IN THE HIGHER MOISTURE AND INSTABILITY. WITH LACK OF
ANY REAL COLD ADVECTION...EXPECT HIGHS AGAIN IN THE 70S.

MODELS DIVERGE STRONGLY AFTER 36 HOURS. THE AVN...WHICH HAS SHOWN
LITTLE RUN TO RUN CONSISTENCY...HAS TRENDED TOWARD A WEAKER AND MORE
DISORGANIZED PATTERN OF SHORTWAVES IN THE WEST SOUTHWEST FLOW. THE
AVN SOLUTION BRINGS PERIODS OF SHOWERS INTO SE MISSOURI AND SW
KENTUCKY SATURDAY NIGHT THROUGH MONDAY. ETA HAS A SINGLE STRONGER
WAVE OVER THE SOUTHERN PLAINS LATE IN THE WEEKEND...WHICH RESULTS IN
SOME PRECIP OVER THE SOUTHERN COUNTIES ON SUNDAY. THE ETA WILL BE
THE MODEL OF CHOICE...RESULTING IN DRY WEATHER SATURDAY NIGHT AND
CHANCE POPS ON SUNDAY...HIGHEST IN THE SOUTH.

OUTLOOK FOR NEXT WEEK STILL APPEARS UNSEASONABLY WARM. MRF HAS BEEN
TRENDING SLOWER WITH THE COLD FRONT THAT WAS FORECAST TO ARRIVE
AROUND MID WEEK. BEST PRECIP CHANCES NOW APPEAR TO BE THURSDAY AND
FRIDAY...ASSOCIATED WITH A SLOW MOVING COLD FRONT.

.PAH...NONE.

MY

In the hours before

Local storm report, Apr 12, 4:25 PM CST, 27 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PADUCAH KY
525 PM CDT FRI APR 12 2002

TIME(CDT)  .....CITY LOCATION..... STATE  ...EVENT/REMARKS...
           ....COUNTY LOCATION....

0515 PM    MT. VERNON                IL   1.50 INCH HAIL
04/12/02   JEFFERSON

The radar

The Paducah radar (KPAH), 101 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 22:52 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 hail. Local standard time, as filed.

Hail, Jackson

When: April 12, 4:52 PM CST
Where: Jackson County, Elkville
Measured: 1.75 in hail
Reported by: LAW ENFORCEMENT
Coordinates: 37.900, -89.233

Golf ball size hail was reported.

What these are

Hail: Hail three-quarters of an inch or larger, or smaller hail that caused damage, filed with the largest stone measured.

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

The same day elsewhere

More

Every storm in Illinois in 2002 Every state in 2002 This day in weather history Warnings in Illinois, April 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: 5293313.