1 flood, 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 Louisville, KY wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Dec 20, 2:04 AM EST, 2 hours 26 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LOUISVILLE KY 125 AM EST FRI DEC 20 2002 A MENAGERIE OF FORECAST ISSUES TO CONTEMPLATE THIS DAY BEFORE THE WINTER SOLSTICE (814 PM EST ON SAT). 6Z 850MB FLOW SUGGESTS LOW-LEVEL CLOUDS SHOULD CLR FROM W-E EARLY THIS MORNING. PWS COLLAPSE TO JUST BELOW SEASONAL MEANS 12Z/FRI, BUT 2ND 500MB WAVE ROUNDING GREAT LAKES LOW COMBINED WITH FAIRLY WEAK LOW/MID TROP STATIC STABILITY, SHOULD YIELD SOME SUBTLE LIFT AND SCT CLOUDS OVER FA THIS AFTERNOON. NEXT ISSUE IS LGT PCPN SAT NITE AND SUN, AS 500MB WAVE GENERATING TREMENDOUS RAINS OVER CA ATTM EJECTS EWD INTO CEN CONUS. LATEST SREF ENSEMBLE DATA SHOWS LITTLE SPREAD IN 700MB WAVE SOLNS, SO WILL LEAN TWDS 0Z OPERATIONAL ETA. LOW-LEVEL FLOW TRAJECTORIES SUGGEST LIMITED MOISTURE RETURN INTO FA, BUT PWS DO POOL TO AROUND 0.5 AHEAD OF SFC TROF 6Z/SUN, WITHIN 290K ISEN LIFT PTTN. SOMEWHERE IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF 40% POPS SEEMS REASONABLE FOR THIS SITUATION, MAINLY SAT NIGHT. ETA FCST RAOBS POINT TO ALL LIQUID FOR THIS DEAL. THEN OF COURSE, THERES THE POTL FOR A SIG XMAS EVE/DAY PCPN EVENT FOR LMK FA. PREDICTABILITY GENERALLY INCREASES IN EL NINO WINTERS COMPARED TO THOSE ASSOC WITH NEUTRAL/LA NINA, BUT WERE STILL 5-6 DAYS AWAY SO WONT GET TOO SPECIFIC WITH THINGS, CONSIDERING PARENT WAVE/ENERGY FOR THIS SYSTEM IS STILL OUT IN THE GULF OF ALASKA. 0Z GFS FCSTS CLOSED 850MB LOW TRACKING NEWD ACROSS CEN KY ON TUE EVE, WITH IMPRESSIVE 700MB DEFORMATION BAND SETTING UP OVER NRN KY/SRN IND. WITH THIS CONFIGURATION, AN AREA OF RA WOULD MOVE NWD IN WARM POOL ASSOC WITH FLOW AROUND ERN SEMI-CIRCLE OF 850MB LOW, PERHAPS SOME FZRA IN NRN PARTS OF FA WITHIN COOL NELY PBL FLOW. AS LOW EJECTS OUT TUE NIGHT, 700MB FRONTOGENETICAL AXIS ON NWRN QUAD OF LOW WOULD LIKELY BE SOURCE OF SN FOR PARTS OF LMK FA, WITH FCST GFS SOUNDINGS SHOWING SATURATION WELL PAST -12C. CHC OF RA/SN MOST ZONES TUE-WED SEEMS THE ROUTE TO GO FOR NOW. .SDF...NONE. XXV
INZ076>079-083-084-089>092-KYZ023>043-045>049-053>057-061>067- 070>078-081-082-201200- HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LOUISVILLE KY 1030 PM EST THU DEC 19 2002 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR CENTRAL KENTUCKY AND SOUTH CENTRAL INDIANA. .DAY ONE...TONIGHT. THE HEAVY RAIN OF EARLIER TODAY AND THIS EVENING HAS SHIFTED EAST OF SOUTH CENTRAL INDIANA AND CENTRAL KENTUCKY. A COUPLE BANDS OF SHOWERS WILL STILL PASS THROUGH OUR REGION OVERNIGHT...BUT RAINFALL AMOUNTS ARE EXPECTED TO BE UNDER ONE QUARTER OF AN INCH. THE NEW RAINFALL OVERNIGHT WILL NOT BE ENOUGH TO CAUSE ANY NEW FLOODING PROBLEMS. HOWEVER...FLOOD WARNINGS REMAIN IN EFFECT UNTIL 400 AM EST FOR A SMALL HANDFUL OF COUNTIES NEAR THE OHIO RIVER. IN THESE AREAS...SOME ROADS REMAINED CLOSED...AND THUS THE FLOOD WARNINGS WERE EXTENDED TO ALLOW HIGH WATERS TO SLOWLY RECEDE. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN... FRIDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY. NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. AN AREA OF LOW PRESSURE IS EXPECTED TO DEVELOP IN THE WESTERN GULF OF MEXICO TUESDAY AND MOVE ACROSS THE GULF COAST STATES CHRISTMAS. IT IS STILL TOO EARLY TO DETERMINE WHAT TYPE OF PRECIPITATION WILL OCCUR BUT SOME SNOW MAY BE POSSIBLE. .SPOTTER CALL TO ACTION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION IS NOT EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. VLD
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 flood. Local standard time, as filed.
The Muscatatuck River at Deputy crested at 20.8 feet at 5:15 AM EST. Flood stage at Deputy is 20 feet. At this level, county roads are under water in northeast Jefferson County, Indiana.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Indiana in 2002Every state in 2002This day in weather historyWarnings in Indiana, 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: 5324009.