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 Indianapolis, IN wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Aug 23, 2:20 PM EST, 2 hours 55 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE INDIANAPOLIS IN 220 PM EST FRI AUG 23 2002 MAIN PROBLEM THIS FORECAST IS THE COVERAGE AND DURATION OF RAIN. RADAR SHOWS SCT CONVECTION IN SC AND SE SECTIONS OF STATE AHEAD OF SE BOUND MCS OVR SRN IL. ALSO SCT STORMS WITH VORT LIKE FEATURE OVER NRN IN MOVG E. FLOOD THREAT APPEARS OVER AS MCS DEBRIS HAVE KEPT WATCH AREA STABLE TODAY WITH LITTLE RAIN AND NO SIGNIF RAIN EXPECTED IN THIS AREA THIS EVE. MODELS DIFFER SOME ON WHERE HEAVIEST PCPN TO FALL BUT ALL SUGGEST CDFNT TO SLIP THRU CWA DURING NGT. GIVEN ONGOING EVENT...ETA APPEARS BEST WITH HEAVIER AMOUNTS SRN IL SLIPPING SE ACRS SRN INDIANA AND INTO KY OVRNGT. SECONDARY AREA BY SOME MODELS FROM EC INDIANA INTO OHIO MAY TAKE PLACE IN OHIO BUT NOT LIKELY HERE. QUESTION AS TO WHETHER SHOWERS MAY LINGER INTO OVERNIGHT OR SAT MORN BUT GIVEN TRENDS THUS FAR EXPECT MOST WILL CARRY OUT THIS AFTN AND EVE. GRADUAL DRYING TAKES PLACE THRU SAT THEN SEASONABLE WX THRU FCST PERIOD. GUIDANCE POPS FROM AVN APPEARED A BIT HI TNGT GIVEN CURRENT AND EXPECTED COVERAGE SO LEANED TO ETA CHC VALUES. GIVEN SLOW FALL OF DEWPOINTS LOWS NEAR 70 OVRNGT APPEARED REASONABLE. AND WITH THAT AS STARTING POINT LOW AND MID 80S TOMORROW ON TRACK. AGAIN SEASONAL TEMPS IN GUIDANCE REST OF FCST LOOKS GOOD. .IND...NONE DRT
The Indianapolis radar (KIND), 51 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 22:17 UTC.
1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.
A tornado briefly touched down at the Putnam County Fairground and destroyed 1 horse stable and damaged one other building.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Indiana in 2002Every state in 2002This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for Indiana, 2002Warnings in Indiana, August 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: 5309990.