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 Quad Cities, IA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Aug 23, 1:48 PM CST, 5 hours 18 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE QUAD CITIES IA IL 248 PM CDT FRI AUG 23 2002 HEAVY RAIN MCS NOW WELL REMOVED FROM CWFA WITH MODELS PROGGING HIGH PRESSURE TO BUILD INTO THE REGION. WET GROUND AND LIGHT WINDS ARE GOOD PROS FOR FOG DEVELOPMENT TONIGHT. CONS ARE BOUNDARY LAYER DRYING OUT AND HOW SOON CLOUD COVER WILL DISSIPATE. SATELLITE TRENDS INDICATE CLOUD COVER TO THE NORTHWEST BECOMING MORE CELLULAR WITH TIME WHICH INDICATES A GOOD CHUNK OF CLOUD COVER SHOULD DISSIPATE WITH SUNSET. THEREFORE WILL GO INITIALLY WITH PATCHY DENSE FOG TONIGHT AND REPEAT THIS THE NEXT SEVERAL NIGHTS AS FLOW REGIME NOT GOING ANYWHERE FAST. HEADLINES FOR FOG MIGHT BE NEEDED BUT UNCERTAINTY PREVENTS FROM DOING SO ATTM. WILL PASS ON CONCERNS TO OVERNIGHT SHIFT. DRY CONDITIONS SATURDAY WITH HIGH PRESSURE OVER THE AREA. ON SUNDAY... WEAK TROF PROGGED TO MOVE THROUGH THE AREA WITH DEW POINTS RECOVERING SOMEWHAT. THIS SHOULD BE JUST ENOUGH TO ALLOW SOME ISOLATED SHRA/TSRA DEVELOPMENT...MAINLY IN THE AFTERNOON AND EARLY EVENING. FWC/MAV NUMBERS FAIRLY SIMILAR WITH MAV BEING A LITTLE COOLER FOR PERIOD 4. WILL MAKE ADJUSTMENTS AS NEEDED. EXTENDED STARTS OUT DRY BUT THEN GETS A LITTLE INTERESTING AROUND MID WEEK. AVN HAS JUMPED AROUND TO ECMWF IN BRINGING A FRONT THROUGH LATE WEDNESDAY NIGHT/THURSDAY. UNCERTAINTY ON TIMING BUT IT NOW WARRANTS CHANCE POPS FOR THURSDAY. DRY ON FRIDAY. COORDINATED WITH DSM..LSE...ILX...AND STL. .DVN... IA...NONE. IL...NONE. MO...NONE. 86
The Quad Cities radar (KDVN), 68 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 01:06 UTC.
1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.
An F0 tornado touched down briefly between Center Junction and Onslow damaging a few trees in a wooded area. No damage to homes or other structures and no injuries were reported.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Iowa in 2002Every state in 2002This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for Iowa, 2002Warnings in Iowa, 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: 5312856.