Name: Heat in Illinois, July 26 to 28, 2002
Start: 2002-07-26T08:00
End: 2002-07-28T20:00
Location: Illinois

The toll

Deaths: 2
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 happened

The episode as NWS LOT wrote it up.

High temperatures between July 26th and July 28th only reached the upper 80s to near 90, but overnight low temperatures remained in the lower to middle 70s, adding to the prolonged affect of heat. Two fatalities were reported in Cook county.

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 Chicago, IL wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jul 26, 2:30 AM CST, 5 hours 30 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jul 26, 2:30 AM CST, 5 hours 30 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CHICAGO IL
330 AM CDT FRI JUL 26 2002

LATEST RADAR LOOPS SHOW NOCTURNAL TSTMS DVLPG ACROSS NRN TIE OF
COUNTIES.  EXPECT THAT THESE WL DSIPT LATER THIS MORNING.  LARGER
MOSAIC VIEW SHOWS THESE STMS TO BE PART OF A S/W FROM LWR MI- NRN
IL.  OTHER WARM ADVECTION TSTMS ARE DVLPG OVR W CNTRL IL AND SHUD
STAY S OF FA.  BHD S/W LO LVL GRADIENT IS WEAK AND EXPECT PASSAGE OF
ASSD TSTMS...ALG WITH SFC HEATING WILL ENCOURAGE SFC FLO OFF LK MI
TDY.  ON SAT STGR WAA PAATERN FCST TO DVLP AND OVERSPREAD FA BY
SUN.  ISENTROPIC FCSTS SUG THAT WAA CONVECTION NOW TO OUT SW WILL
REFORM TONIGHT JUST TO W AS LLJ STRENGTHENS.  THESE STMS THEN
EXPECTED TO PROGRESS INTO FA SAT NGT INTO ERLY SUN.  ON SUN HOT
HUMID CONDS TO OVERSPREAD FA AS STMS LIFT NEWD.   MAIN QUESTION NXT
SVRL DAYS WILL BE TSTMS CHCS.  ALTHOUGH LO LVL WARM ADVECTION
BECOMES WELL ESTABLISHED OVER UPCOMING WEEKEND...H5 HGTS DON/T INCRS
AS WITH PREVIOUS HEAT EPISODES LEVING OPEN THE POSSIBILITY OF TSTMS
AT JUST ABOUT ANY TIME...BUT WILL NARROW DOWN CHC POS TO THIS
MORNING IN NRN SECTIONS...SAT NGT INTO ERLY SUN...THEN WITH FROPA
FCST FOR MON.

.CHI...NONE

MERZLOCK

In the hours before

Special weather statement, Jul 26, 4:52 AM CST, 3 hours 8 minutes before

ILZ003>006-008-010>014-019>023-032>033-039-INZ001>002-010>011-019-
261700-

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CHICAGO IL
600 AM CDT/EST FRI JUL 26 2002

FOR NORTH CENTRAL AND NORTHEAST ILLINOIS AND NORTHWEST INDIANA

THERE IS A SLIGHT RISK OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS THIS MORNING...AS
WELL AS SATURDAY INTO EARLY SUNDAY.

A WEAK DISTURBANCE MOVING ACROSS THE GREAT LAKES WILL TRIGGER
SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS EARLY THIS MORNING IN EXTREME NORTHERN
ILLINOIS.  IN ADDITION...THUNDERSTORMS OVER CENTRAL ILLINOIS THIS
MORNING...WITH A HISTORY OF PRODUCING LARGE HAIL...MAY BRUSH FAR
SOUTHERN PORTIONS OF THE REGION.

ANOTHER THREAT OF THUNDERSTORMS WILL MOVE INTO THE REGION SATURDAY
AND SATURDAY NIGHT AHEAD OF A PUSH OF HOT AND HUMID AIR DUE IN ON
SUNDAY.

PM

Event by event

1 heat. Local standard time, as filed.

Heat, Cook

When: July 26, 8:00 AM CST to July 28, 8:00 PM CST
Where: Cook forecast zone
Deaths: 2 direct, 0 indirect
Reported by: GOVT OFFICIAL

The people who died

As the offices recorded each death: direct deaths were caused by the weather itself, indirect ones by something it set in motion.

Event	Date	Age	Sex	Where	Kind
Heat, Cook	2002-07-29	62	Male	Permanent Home	Direct
Heat, Cook	2002-07-28	50	Male	Permanent Home	Direct

What these are

Heat: Heat below excessive heat criteria that still caused deaths, injuries or significant impacts.

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, 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: 5303356.