Indiana, 2002

Winter Storm in Indiana, March 25 to 26, 2002

March 25 to 26, 2002 · NWS IND · 19 events in 19 counties and zones

An area of low pressure along with late season cold air brought a wintery mix of precipitation to much of central Indiana on March 25 and 26. A mixture of snow, sleet, and freezing rain fell across central Indiana throughout the storm.

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it; 19 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.

  • Tornadoes
  • Tropical storms and surge
  • Floods
  • Wind
  • Hail
  • Winter weather
  • Heat and drought
  • Cold
  • Fire, smoke and dust
  • Marine and coastal
  • Other

Open the live radar over this ground

The toll

Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
None recorded
Crop damage
None recorded
Events
19

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 IND wrote it up.

An area of low pressure along with late season cold air brought a wintery mix of precipitation to much of central Indiana on March 25 and 26. A mixture of snow, sleet, and freezing rain fell across central Indiana throughout the storm. Some locations received up to 4 inches of snow with a little ice while other locations received a quarter of an inch of ice with around an inch of snow. Numerous automobile accidents occurred, and some power lines were downed due to the weight of the ice.

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 Indianapolis, IN wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Mar 25, 3:10 PM EST, 6 hours 50 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Mar 25, 3:10 PM EST, 6 hours 50 minutes before
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE INDIANAPOLIS IN
310 PM EST MON MAR 25 2002

SPLIT AND PROGRESSIVE UPPR FLOW XPCTD TO CONT FOR THE NEXT FEW DAYS.
SHORT WV COMING OUT OF THE SRN PLAINS THIS AFT WL PASS THRU THE AREA
TUES. ASSOCIATED SFC WV TO RIDE UP ALONG THE FNT THRU ERN KY BY TUES
MORN. FCST FOCUS CENTERS ON PCPN TYPE AND AMOUNTS.

SIG PCPN SHOULD ONCE AGAIN BREAK OUT ACRS THE AREA FM THE SW THIS
EVEN AS UPPR LVL TROF APPROACHES. 850 MB FNT SETS UP ACRS THE FAR SRN
SECTIONS OF THE STATE TONIGHT ALONG WITH A DECENT LO LVL JET NR 40
KTS...SO SUSPECT THE THREAT OF HVY PCPN EXISTS OVR THE FAR S. WL
ISSUE A FLOOD WATCH FOR THE FAR SRN TIER OF COUNTIES THRU TUES MORN.
FARTHER N...PCPN TYPE IS A CONCERN WITH SHALLOW COLD AIR. TEMPS HV
NOT BEEN MOVG MUCH TODAY UNDER LO LVL CAA. WOULD EXPECT THIS TO CONT
WITH LRG COLD SFC HI PARKED TO THE N. LO LVL THICKNESSES SUGGEST MOSTLY
SNOW/SLEET OVR THE NRN ZONES...WITH FREEZING RAIN MORE LIKELY OVR THE
CENTRAL. POTENTIAL FOR SIG AMOUNTS OF ICE...ESPECIALLY OVR THE CENTRAL
ZONES. WITH ISSUE A WINTER STORM WARNING FOR THE NRN AND CENTRAL
ZONES FOR TONIGHT INTO TUES FOR THE COMBO OF SNOW/ICE. A WINTER WX
ADVISORY WL BE ISSUED IN THE BUFFER ZONE BETWEEN THE WINTER STORM
WARNING AND FLOOD WATCH AND THIS AREA LOOKS TO CHANGEOVER NR MIDNIGHT
OR LATER.

PCPN SHOULD DIMINISH THE AFT AS SYS MOVES AWAY. MIXED PCPN SHOULD
CHANGE TO ALL SNOW DURG THE DAY. WL CONT THE HEADLINES INTO THE EARLY
AFT TUES.

LTR PDS OF FCST LOOK QUIET WITH SFC HI PRES BLDG IN.

CONSIDERING LO LVL TEMP PTNS FM THE MODELS...WL HV TO SHAVE 1 OR 2
CATEGORIES OFF ON NGM MOS TEMPS THRU MOST OF THE FCST PD.

.IND...WINTER STORM WARNING LATE TONIGHT INTO TUESDAY AFT ALONG AND
         N OF A TERRE HAUTE-RUSHVILLE LN.
       WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY LATE TONIGHT INTO TUESDAY AFT
         INZ060>065.
       FLOOD WATCH LATE TONIGHT INTO TUES AFT INZ067>072.
JAS

The radar

The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

19 winter storm. Local standard time, as filed.

Winter Storm, Tippecanoe

When
March 25, 10:00 PM EST to March 26, 1:00 PM EST
Where
Tippecanoe forecast zone
Reported by
OFFICIAL NWS OBS.
Coordinates
40.389, -86.894 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Winter Storm, Warren

When
March 25, 10:00 PM EST to March 26, 1:00 PM EST
Where
Warren forecast zone
Reported by
LAW ENFORCEMENT
Coordinates
40.347, -87.353 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Winter Storm, Carroll

When
March 25, 10:00 PM EST to March 26, 1:00 PM EST
Where
Carroll forecast zone
Reported by
LAW ENFORCEMENT
Coordinates
40.583, -86.563 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Winter Storm, Howard

When
March 25, 10:00 PM EST to March 26, 1:00 PM EST
Where
Howard forecast zone
Reported by
LAW ENFORCEMENT
Coordinates
40.484, -86.117 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Winter Storm, Clinton

When
March 25, 10:00 PM EST to March 26, 1:00 PM EST
Where
Clinton forecast zone
Reported by
LAW ENFORCEMENT
Coordinates
40.302, -86.475 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Winter Storm, Montgomery

When
March 25, 10:00 PM EST to March 26, 1:00 PM EST
Where
Montgomery forecast zone
Reported by
LAW ENFORCEMENT
Coordinates
40.040, -86.893 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Winter Storm, Fountain

When
March 25, 10:00 PM EST to March 26, 1:00 PM EST
Where
Fountain forecast zone
Reported by
LAW ENFORCEMENT
Coordinates
40.121, -87.242 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Winter Storm, Vermillion

When
March 25, 10:00 PM EST to March 26, 1:00 PM EST
Where
Vermillion forecast zone
Reported by
LAW ENFORCEMENT
Coordinates
39.854, -87.464 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Winter Storm, Hamilton

When
March 26, 12:00 AM EST to 1:00 PM EST
Where
Hamilton forecast zone
Reported by
LAW ENFORCEMENT
Coordinates
40.073, -86.052 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Winter Storm, Boone

When
March 26, 12:00 AM EST to 1:00 PM EST
Where
Boone forecast zone
Reported by
LAW ENFORCEMENT
Coordinates
40.051, -86.469 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Winter Storm, Parke

When
March 26, 12:00 AM EST to 1:00 PM EST
Where
Parke forecast zone
Reported by
LAW ENFORCEMENT
Coordinates
39.774, -87.206 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Winter Storm, Vigo

When
March 26, 12:00 AM EST to 1:00 PM EST
Where
Vigo forecast zone
Reported by
LAW ENFORCEMENT
Coordinates
39.431, -87.390 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Winter Storm, Madison

When
March 26, 2:00 AM EST to 1:00 PM EST
Where
Madison forecast zone
Reported by
TRAINED SPOTTER
Coordinates
40.162, -85.719 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Winter Storm, Delaware

When
March 26, 2:00 AM EST to 1:00 PM EST
Where
Delaware forecast zone
Reported by
LAW ENFORCEMENT
Coordinates
40.228, -85.397 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Winter Storm, Hendricks

When
March 26, 2:00 AM EST to 1:00 PM EST
Where
Hendricks forecast zone
Reported by
LAW ENFORCEMENT
Coordinates
39.770, -86.510 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Winter Storm, Putnam

When
March 26, 2:00 AM EST to 1:00 PM EST
Where
Putnam forecast zone
Reported by
LAW ENFORCEMENT
Coordinates
39.666, -86.845 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Winter Storm, Randolph

When
March 26, 3:00 AM EST to 1:00 PM EST
Where
Randolph forecast zone
Reported by
LAW ENFORCEMENT
Coordinates
40.158, -85.011 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Winter Storm, Henry

When
March 26, 3:00 AM EST to 1:00 PM EST
Where
Henry forecast zone
Reported by
LAW ENFORCEMENT
Coordinates
39.931, -85.396 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Winter Storm, Morgan

When
March 26, 3:00 AM EST to 1:00 PM EST
Where
Morgan forecast zone
Reported by
NWS EMPLOYEE(OFF DUTY)
Coordinates
39.482, -86.446 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

What these are

Winter Storm
A storm that brought snow, sleet or freezing rain at warning levels, usually over several hours or days.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

More

Every storm in Indiana in 2002Every state in 2002This day in weather historyWarnings in Indiana, March 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: 5281885, 5281886, 5281887, 5281888, 5281889, 5281890, 5281891, 5281892, 5281893, 5281894, 5281895, 5281896, 5281897, 5282012, 5282013, 5282014, 5282015, 5282016, 5282017.