1 high 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 Lincoln, IL wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Dec 18, 2:00 PM CST, 2 hours 20 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LINCOLN IL 200 PM CST WED DEC 18 2002 PLENTY OF SHORT TERM CHALLENGES INCLUDING SVR WX THREAT THIS EVENING...CLEARING TRENDS...PCPN CHANCES AND HEAVY RAIN THREAT. LATEST SFC ANALYSIS INDICATING THE MAIN SFC LOW ACROSS IS OVER S/CENTRAL MN. MODELS SIMILAR IN MOVING THE LOW AND ASSOCIATED COLD FRONT SLOWLY. VERY STRONG PRESSURE GRADIENT ACROSS MOST OF THE OHIO VALLEY AND CENTRAL PLAINS STATES. SAT PICS SHOWING BIG DRY SLOT OVER W 1/2 OF MO AND SW IA. MODELS DO NOT APPEAR TO BE HANDLING THE DRY SLOT VERY WELL AND ALL MODELS INDICATE THE DRY AIR WILL REMAIN JUST WEST OF THE CWA. LOCATION OF THE DRY SLOT WILL HAVE DRAMATIC IMPACT ON HOW TO HANDLE TONIGHTS FCST. ALL THE INGREDIENTS SEEM IN PLACE FOR AT LEAST ISOLATED SVR THREAT LATE AFTERNOON/EVENING. MAIN LIMITING FACTOR RIGHT NOW IS THE FACT THAT CLOUDS HAVE LIMITED ISOLATION THUS FAR TODAY...BUT SOME CLEARING IS TRYING TO MAKE ITS WAY INTO THE WESTERN PORTIONS OF THE CWA ATTM. HEAVY RAINS ALSO A THREAT ESP ACROSS THE SOUTHERN MOST ZONES. WILL MAKE MENTION IN THE ZONE FCST. MAY HAVE TO MAKE LAST MINUTE TWEAKS TO FCST BASED ON LATEST SAT PICS AND RADAR TRENDS. MAIN SFC LOW ONLY TO SLOWLY MAKE ITS WAY TO THE NORTH THROUGH TOMORROW. WILL CONTINUE WITH CHC OR SLIGHT CHC POPS IN THE MORNING FOR LINGERING ACTIVITY...ESP IN THE SE. COOLER TOMORROW BEHIND THE FRONT. THEN THE AREA IS TO REMAIN IN A BIT OF A LULL UNTIL SAT EVENING. NOT QUITE SURE WHAT TO MAKE OF THE AVNS LIGHT PCPN SAT EVENING ACROSS THE SOUTHERN ZONES...BUT IT HAS BEEN CONSISTENT WITH THE FEATURE. I HAVE INCR THE CLOUDS IN THE DATABASE AND WILL MAKE MENTION OF FLURRIES ACROSS THE SOUTHERN ZONES AT LEAST. NEXT CHALLENGE THEN COMES ALONG ABOUT CHRISTMAS EVE. MRF MORE PROGRESSIVE WITH SOUTHERN STREAM SYSTEM THAN THE OTHER MED RANGE MODELS. HOWEVER...ENSEMBLE MEANS DO SEEM TO SUPPORT A MORE PROGRESSIVE SOLUTION SO WILL LEAN THAT WAY BUT WITH LOW CONFIDENCE. TEMPS/THICKNESS APPEAR COLD ENUFF FOR THE PCPN TO BE AT LEAST OF THE MIXED VARIETY. ONCE AGAIN AMOUNTS APPEAR TO BE LIGHT AND MAINLY ACROSS THE SOUTHERN ZONES...OR ALONG AND SOUTH OF I-70. APPEARS TO BE PC AND DRY ON CHRISTMAS DAY...ALL IN ALL CHANCES DONT LOOK TOO GOOD FOR A WHITE CHRISTMAS...HOWEVER THINGS COULD CHANGE CONSIDERING THE WEAKNESS THAT THE MODELS HAVE TRYING TO PHASE THE NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN JET STREAMS. HAVE WENT WITH A BLEND OF THE MODELS FOR THE FCST PACKAGE. MOS DATA SIMILAR AND WILL USE A BLEND WHERE DIFFERENCES DO EXIST. DIDNT MAKE ANY MAJOR CHANGES TO THE DATABASE/GRIDS. LOWERED OR TWEAKED TEMPS HERE AND THERE...SMOOTHED OUT SOME OF THE SKY COVER FCSTS. NO MAJOR CHANGES TO THE POP FIELDS. ADDED CHC OF FLURRIES ACROSS S 1/2 SAT NIGHT AND MADE PCPN TYPE MIXED ON TUE. ADDED NEW DAY 7. GRIDS HAVE BEEN SENT. PRELIMINARY CCF NUMBERS FOR COORDINATION PURPOSES. SPI EB 042/047/029/040 035 27721 PIA EB 041/045/026/038 032 27721 DEC EB 044/048/029/040 035 27721 CMI EB 044/048/027/038 034 27731 MTO EB 046/052/030/040 036 27731 LWV EB 048/054/032/042 037 27831 .ILX...NONE. HALL
ILZ027>031-036>038-040>057-061>063-066>068-071>073-191200- HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LINCOLN IL 1055 AM CST WED DEC 18 2002 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST ILLINOIS. .DAY ONE...THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT A STRONG SYSTEM IN THE PLAINS WILL MOVE SLOWLY TOWARD THE AREA THIS AFTERNOON. THIS SYSTEM WILL INTERACT WITH WARM MOIST AIR ALREADY OVER THE AREA TO PRODUCE THUNDERSTORMS ACROSS CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST ILLINOIS THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT. SOME OF THESE STORMS COULD BECOME SEVERE...CONTAINING LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING WINDS. LOCALLY HEAVY RAIN IS ALSO POSSIBLE WITH THIS SYSTEM. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...THURSDAY THROUGH TUESDAY NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION MAY BE REQUIRED THIS AFTERNOON THROUGH TONIGHT. BYRD
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 high wind. Local standard time, as filed.
In Mattoon, high gradient winds blew a 6 foot section of roof off of the high school gym. Several trees and power lines in the area were blown down as well. No injuries were reported.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Illinois in 2002Every state in 2002This day in weather historyWarnings in Illinois, December 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: 5324317.