1 tornado, as filed by the National Weather Service.
Every event with a place to put it. 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 St. Louis, MO wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at May 6, 2:00 PM CST, 11 hours 20 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION...UPDATED NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ST LOUIS MO 300 PM CDT MON MAY 6 2002 LINE OF SHWRS AND TSTM CRS OUR CWA THIS LAST NIGHT AND THIS MORNING...FEW STORMS STIL PRESENT IN SW IL. HEAVY RAIN WAS REPORTED OVERNIGHT AND THIS MORNG...ALONG WITH HAIL AND WIND. FFG FOR CNTRL AND NE MO SHWD ONE ARND ONE INCH FOR 3 HOURS PCP...IN THE SRN COUNTIES AROUND 2 INCHES. CONDITIONS FOR TONIGHT ARE SIMALR THAN LAST NIGHT...MDLS PLACE A WIDE BAND OF RAIN ACROSS CENTRAL MO. I WILL ISSUED FLOOD WATCH FOR ALL OUR CWA TNGT AND TUES MORNG. ETA CRS SECTION FOR STL AND COU PLACE EVEN BETTER CHC TUES NIGHT... WITH BETTER LIFT. BUT MDLS DIFFER A BIT IN AMTS AND PLACE FOR RAIN. MRF SHWD FNT CRSNG MO THURS...WITH DRY WX PTN FRI AND EARLY SAT. RAIN WL MOVE INTO WRN MO LATE FRI AND SAT...KP RAIN FOR SAT IN WRN AND NE...AND FOR SUN AND FOR THE REST OF CWA. .STL...FLOOD WATCH FOR TNGT AND TUE MRNG FOR ENTIRE CWA.
The St Louis radar (KLSX), 25 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 07:21 UTC.
1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.
A brief weak tornado struck just southeast of Centerville. The path length was only about one tenth of a mile and 25 yards wide. Debris at the location consisted of snapped and uprooted trees and a destroyed shed. Several boards from the shed were driven into the ground some distance away.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Illinois in 2002Every state in 2002This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for Illinois, 2002Warnings in Illinois, May 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: 5291145.