Name: Hail in Illinois, August 2, 2002
Start: 2002-08-02T16:51
End: 2002-08-02T17:00
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: 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 LSX wrote it up.

Storm spotters reported 1 inch hail just west of Ruma and 3/4 inch hail in Sparta.

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 St. Louis, MO wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Aug 2, 1:35 PM CST, 3 hours 16 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Aug 2, 1:35 PM CST, 3 hours 16 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ST LOUIS MO
235 PM CDT FRI AUG 2 2002

FRONTAL BOUNDARY LOOKS LIKE ITS HUNG UP STRETCHING FROM AROUND
SPRINGFIELD IL TO ST LOUIS MO TO JOPLIN MO.  BOTH THE ETA AND AVN
ARE INDICATING THAT THIS IS AS FAR AS THE FRONT IS GOING TO
GET...AND ITS APPARENT LACK OF SOUTHEASTWARD PUSH SINCE AROUND 13Z
OR 14Z SEEMS TO SUPPORT THIS FORECAST.  NO MAJOR DIFFERENCES NOTED
BETWEEN THE TWO MODELS THRU 60 HOURS.  THE FRONT MOVES BACK
NORTHWARD TONIGHT AND SATURDAY AND THATS THE END TO ANY RELIEF FROM
THE HEAT WE MIGHT HAVE HAD.  THE AVN PUTS ALL KINDS OF QPF ACROSS
THE AREA ON SATURDAY AND SUNDAY AFTERNOON.  I FIND THIS HARD TO
BELIEVE CONSIDERING THE UPPER LEVEL RIDGE BUILDING IN DIRECTLY ON
TOP OF US.  BONE-DRY ETA LOOKS LIKE THE MODEL OF CHOICE.  ETA ALSO
LOOKS LIKE THE WARMEST OF THE TWO WITH +22-23 850MB TEMPS STRETCHING
ALL ACROSS THE AREA ON SATURDAY...WITH +23-24 ON SUNDAY.  AVN IS A
BIT COOLER...BUT THAT SEEMS TO BE THE NORM LATELY.  WILL FOLLOW THE
ETA MOS GUIDANCE CLOSELY.  CANT SEE ANY REASON MONDAY WILL BE
COOLER THAN SATURDAY OR SUNDAY...SO PERSISTENCE LOOKS TO BE THE
FORECAST.  THE BIG QUESTION IS WHETHER OR NOT TO ISSUE ANY HEAT
ADVISORIES...OR WARNINGS.  THINK THE DEWPOINTS SHOULD BE JUST LOW
ENOUGH IN MOST AREAS TO KEEP OUR HEAT INDICES BELOW 105.
HOWEVER...WE MIGHT BE HOT AND HUMID ENOUGH IN THE STL METRO AREA
WITH THE HEAT ISLAND EFFECT OF ST LOUIS TO WARRANT AN ADVISORY FOR
SATURDAY...WELL KEEP AN EYE ON SUNDAY AND MONDAY FOR A POTENTIAL
WARNING...

THANKS FOR THE COORDINATION ILX...EAX

.STL...HEAT ADVISORY FOR ST CHARLES...ST LOUIS...ST LOUIS
CITY...MADISON IL...ST CLAIR IL

CARNEY

The radar

The St Louis radar (KLSX), 86 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 22:49 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

2 hail. Local standard time, as filed.

Hail, Randolph

When: August 2, 4:51 PM CST
Where: Randolph County, 1 mi W of Ruma
Measured: 1 in hail
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER
Coordinates: 38.133, -90.017

Hail, Randolph

When: August 2, 5:00 PM CST
Where: Randolph County, Sparta
Measured: 0.75 in hail
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER
Coordinates: 38.117, -89.700

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, August 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: 5309552, 5309553.