Iowa, 2002

Tornado and Hail in Iowa, July 26, 2002

July 26, 2002 · NWS DMX · 8 events in 1 county or zone

A strong warm front was located across northern Kansas into northern Missouri. The airmass was quite unstable with dew point temperatures well into the 70s.

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it. 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

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The toll

Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$75,000
Crop damage
$65,000
Events
8

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 DMX wrote it up.

A strong warm front was located across northern Kansas into northern Missouri. The airmass was quite unstable with dew point temperatures well into the 70s. Temperatures were in the 100 to 110 degree range south of the front, while to the north of it readings were only in the 80s. Thunderstorms fired by the early evening hours just to the north of the front. Within a few hours a fairly large MCS had formed over Iowa. Most of the thunderstorms were not severe, only producing brief gusty winds, small hail, and heavy rainfall. One cell became a supercell over southwest Iowa. Golf ball size hail fell in Taylor County. During the peak intensity of the storm a tornado touched down southeast of New Market and had an intermittent track to about 2 miles east of Bedford. For the most part the tornado tracked through open country causing only minor damage. One farmstead was damaged by the tornado east of Bedford.

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 Des Moines, IA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jul 26, 2:25 PM CST, 5 hours 35 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jul 26, 2:25 PM CST, 5 hours 35 minutes before
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DES MOINES IA
325 PM CDT FRI JUL 26 2002

SHORT TERM...MIDLVL BAROCLINIC ZONE ACRS NEB INTO IA HAS BEEN
PERSISENT THRU THE DAY...MUCH LONGER THAN XPCD AT SHIFT CHG. THE
BARO ZONE HAS BEEN SUPPORTED BY INCRG SLY FLOW FM THE HOT AMS ACRS
KS OVR THE BNDRY INTO CNTRL NEB...AND CARRIED EWD IN THE MDTLY STG
MIDLVL FLOW. LOW LVL FLOW HAS INCRD AND BACKED THRU THE DAY AHD THE
DECENT S/W CROSSING THE RCKYS. PCPN GRDLY DIES AS IT MOVS AWAY FROM
UPLIFT ZONE N OF THE WAVE IN CNTRL KS. THINKING HERE IS THAT ACTION
WL GO ON THE SRN EDGE OF THE CLD FLD...IMMEDIATELY N OF THE BNDRY
THIS EVEN. S/W OVR THE RCKYS AND PERSISTENT UPR JET WITH INCRG DIV
WL LIKELY AID IN MOVG KS LOW INTO SWRN IA LT TNGT. HENCE THE BTR
POPS BROADBRUSHED ABT SRN TWO-THIRDS OF THE STATE. WITH INCRG LOW
LVL WNDS...SOME THREAT OF TRAINING IF A PERSISTENT MESOSCALE BNDRY
SETS UP...BUT SAYING WHERE THAT WL BE IS A GUESS. STILL POINTING TO
IA/MO BDR AREA THOUGH.

LONGER TERM...BLV THERE WL BE SOME LINGERING PCPN OVR ERN PTN CWA IN
THE MRNG AS MCS MOVS AWAY. HOPEFULLY CLD FLD PULL AWAY AS WELL
ALLOWING TMPS TO REACH FCST HIGHS IN THE U80S-L90S. MDLS WANT TO
SETUP AN SW-NE BNDRY BY LT TMR AS UPR S/W LIFTS TWD THE GTLKS. BLV
SOME CAPPING WL EXIST WITH A SML CHC OF LATE DAY TSTMS NR THE BNDRY
AS HINTED BY THE ETA. ETA LOOKS TOO DRY SAT NGT WITH CONTD PCPN
THREAT E OF BNDRY. THE MESOSCALE WL COME INTO PLAY HERE BY THEN
DEPENDING ON WHAT HAPPENS TNGT. ON SUNDAY...A SIMILAR SITUATION FOR
LATE DAY CONVECTION WITH THE MDLS REALLY TRYING TO RE-IGNITE THE
BNDRY AGN SUNDAY NGT AS DECENT WNW FLOW S/W MOVES THRU.

EXTENDED...INSERTED PCPN CHC TUE NGT/WED BASED ON THE AVN/S
INSISTENCE OF RPD DESTABILIZATION OF THE RETURN FLOW INTO NWRN IA
AND SETTLING INTO CNTRL IA AS A LOW LVL COL DVLPS.

.DSM...NONE
MYERS

The radar

The Omaha radar (KOAX), 141 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 01:59 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

7 hail, 1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.

Hail, Taylor

When
July 26, 8:00 PM CST
Where
Taylor County, 2 mi S of New Market
Measured
1.75 in hail
Property damage
$10,000
Crop damage
$10,000
Reported by
EMERGENCY MANAGER
Coordinates
40.700, -94.900

Hail, Taylor

When
July 26, 8:00 PM CST
Where
Taylor County, 6 mi S of New Market
Measured
1 in hail
Property damage
$5,000
Crop damage
$5,000
Reported by
EMERGENCY MANAGER
Coordinates
40.650, -94.900

Hail, Taylor

When
July 26, 8:00 PM CST
Where
Taylor County, 5 mi W of Bedford
Measured
1.75 in hail
Property damage
$10,000
Crop damage
$10,000
Reported by
LAW ENFORCEMENT
Coordinates
40.667, -94.817

Hail, Taylor

When
July 26, 8:07 PM CST
Where
Taylor County, 8 mi W of Bedford
Measured
1 in hail
Property damage
$5,000
Crop damage
$10,000
Reported by
EMERGENCY MANAGER
Coordinates
40.667, -94.867

Hail, Taylor

When
July 26, 8:07 PM CST
Where
Taylor County, 4 mi S of New Market
Measured
1 in hail
Property damage
$5,000
Crop damage
$10,000
Reported by
EMERGENCY MANAGER
Coordinates
40.683, -94.900

Hail, Taylor

When
July 26, 8:20 PM CST
Where
Taylor County, Bedford
Measured
1.75 in hail
Property damage
$25,000
Crop damage
$10,000
Reported by
LAW ENFORCEMENT
Coordinates
40.667, -94.717

Hail, Taylor

When
July 26, 8:20 PM CST
Where
Taylor County, Bedford
Measured
1 in hail
Property damage
$5,000
Crop damage
$5,000
Reported by
EMERGENCY MANAGER
Coordinates
40.667, -94.717

Tornado, Taylor

When
July 26, 8:29 PM CST to 8:53 PM CST
Where
Taylor County, 5 mi SE of New Market
Rating
F1
Path length
7 mi
Path width
60 yd
Property damage
$10,000
Crop damage
$5,000
Reported by
TRAINED SPOTTER
Coordinates
40.683, -94.833

Touched down in open country with intermittent track. Did some damage to a house east of Bedford.

What these are

Hail
Hail three-quarters of an inch or larger, or smaller hail that caused damage, filed with the largest stone measured.
Tornado
A violently rotating column of air in contact with the ground and extending from a thunderstorm, filed with its path, width and Fujita or Enhanced Fujita rating from the damage survey.

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

The same day elsewhere

More

Every storm in Iowa in 2002Every state in 2002This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for Iowa, 2002Warnings in Iowa, July 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: 5304624, 5304695, 5304696, 5304700, 5304701, 5304697, 5304698, 5304699.