A nearly stationary front, combined with abundant moisture and a strong upper level storm system to produce scattered strong to severe thunderstorms Wednesday evening. A few reports of hail to near quarter size and wind gusts of around 60 mph were received.
Every event with a place to put it; 9 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 episode as NWS DVN wrote it up.
A nearly stationary front, combined with abundant moisture and a strong upper level storm system to produce scattered strong to severe thunderstorms Wednesday evening. A few reports of hail to near quarter size and wind gusts of around 60 mph were received. Damage was confined mainly to trees and power lines. The thunderstorms also spawned two F0 tornadoes, one east of Washington and the other near Keota. The tornadoes were short lived and produced no damage or injuries. The thunderstorms continued through the late evening and into Thursday morning. During this time the threat shifted from hail, high wind and isolated tornadoes to very heavy rain and flash flooding, as the thunderstorms continuously developed over some of the same areas. Rainfall amounts of up to 3 to 4 inches were reported in portions of Southeast Iowa, an area which just 48 hours earlier received anywhere from 2 to 5 inches of rain. As a result, much of the heavy rain went into runoff resulting in fairly widespread flash flooding.
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 Jun 12, 1:20 PM CST, 4 hours 5 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE QUAD CITIES IA IL 220 PM CDT WED JUN 12 2002 DIFFUSE SURFACE FRONT DIFFICULT TO DISCERN DUE TO NUMEROUS MESO BOUNDARIES...BUT MAINLY INDICATED FROM NEAR CHI THROUGH NORTHERN IA TO E CENTRAL NEB. MESO BOUNDARY INITIATING CELLS THIS AFTERNOON CURVED FROM NE IL NEAR LAKE FRONT THROUGH MLI TO CID AT 18Z. AT UPPER LEVELS...H85 MOISTURE RIDGE AXIS NOTED AT 12Z FROM W TX INTO SE IA. STRONG H5 LOW CHURNED OVER SW ALBERTA WITH 90 KT H25 JET JUST SOUTH FROM WY TO MI. FAVORABLE UPPER DIFFLUENCE...UPSTREAM MID LEVEL FORCING...SLOW MOVING E-W FRONT...AND ABUNDANT LOW LEVEL MOISTURE SETTING THE STAGE FOR SEVERE POTENTIAL THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING...THEN OVERNIGHT HEAVY RAIN AND FLOODING CONCERNS. MODELS AGAIN HAVING DIFFICULTY HANDLING SURFACE FRONTS AND QPF PLACEMENT. AVN WAS TOO FAR SOUTH WITH SURFACE FRONT AT 18Z...WITH ETA PLACEMENT CLOSER TO REALITY. BOTH BRING STRONG MID LEVEL WAVE CURRENTLY MOVING INTO SE NEB INTO EASTERN IA TOWARD 06Z WHICH MATCHES WELL WITH NOWCAST TOOLS. THIS PUSHES SURFACE LOW PRESSURE WAVE ALONG THE FRONT AND WITH STRONG UPPER DIVERGENCE AND HIGH PRECIPITABLE WATER...HEAVY RAIN STRONG POSSIBILITY. AVN MAY BE OVERDONE WITH HUGE QPF BULLSEYE OVER FAR W CENTRAL IL...BUT CANNOT IGNORE. MOST VULNERABLE WILL BE AREAS MAINLY SOUTH OF HIGHWAY 34 WHERE 88D STP AMOUNTS EXCEEDED 3 INCHES LAST NIGHT. AREAS FURTHER NORTH NOT IN MUCH BETTER SHAPE WITH RAIN YESTERDAY AND RIVERS STILL HIGH FROM LAST WEEKS EVENT...SO WILL ISSUE FLOOD WATCH FOR CWFA ALONG AND SOUTH OF INTERSTATE 80 COORIDOR. BELIEVE CONVECTION SHOULD GET GOING THIS EVENING WITH MCV CURRENTLY SPINNING INTO N CENTRAL MO AND FAR SOUTHERN IA WITH REINFORCEMENT FROM STRONGER AFOREMENTIONED MID LEVEL WAVE IN CENTRAL NEB. ON THURSDAY WILL KEEP LOW SCATTERED POPS FOR SHOWERS WITH MUCH COOLER TEMPERATURES THURSDAY THROUGH FRIDAY AS UPPER LOW PASSES JUST TO NORTHEAST. AVN CONTINUES TO HINT AT SHOWERS FOR SATURDAY WITH WEAK E-W TROUGH...BUT WILL LEAVE OUT FOR NOW DUE TO UNIMPRESSIVE FORCING. MAIN MESSAGE WILL BE COOLER TEMPERATURES AND LOWER HUMIDITY OVER WEEKEND. MEDIUM RANGE MODELS IN AGREEMENT WITH WESTERN CONUS RIDGE BUILDING EARLY NEXT WEEK WITH TROUGHING FROM GREAT LAKES AND NORTHEAST. BIG DIFFERENCES WITH MRF ALONE IN CUTTING OFF ANOTHER H5 LOW OVER LOWER MI...WHICH DIVES INTO OHIO RIVER VALLEY BY MID WEEK. LATEST AVN EXT MORE IN LINE WITH WEAKER EASTERN TROUGH SHOWN BY ECMWF AND UK. WITH SUCH BIG DISAGREEMENT...WILL CONTINUE CURRENT TRENDS OF RAIN CHANCES MONDAY AND TUESDAY WITH SOME SORT OF UPPER NW FLOW AND IMBEDDED WAVES...THEN DRY WEDNESDAY WITH UPPER RIDGE MOVING OVERHEAD. COORDINATED WITH DSM AND ILX...THANKS. .DVN... IA...FLOOD WATCH TONIGHT FOR ALONG AND SOUTH OF I-80. IL...FLOOD WATCH TONIGHT FOR ALONG AND SOUTH OF I-80. MO...FLOOD WATCH TONIGHT. DLS
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE QUAD CITIES IA IL
433 PM CDT WED JUN 12 2002
TIME(CDT) .....CITY LOCATION..... STATE ...EVENT/REMARKS...
....COUNTY LOCATION....
1215 PM 5 W COVINGTON IA TORNADO
06/12/02 LINN SPINNING DUST UNDER
FUNNEL. BRIEF
TOUCHDOWN ALSO REPORTED
BY PUBLIC. REPORTED BY
LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIAL.The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
8 flash flood, 2 tornado, 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 funnel cloud. Local standard time, as filed.
A brief tornado touched down northwest of Keota. The tornado dissipated at 190th Street and County Road G32. No reports of damage or injuries were received.
A brief tornado touched down east of Washington. No injuries or damage was reported.
Five trees were blown down on a farm.
Power pole and tree limbs knocked down.
Very heavy rain occurred in Farmington, with 2 inches of rain measured in just 30 minutes. This heavy rain forced Indian Creek out of it's banks.
One to two feet of water covered several city roads. A vehicle stalled in the high water covering Highway 61.
Two to three inches of rain fell in an hour triggering widespread lowland flooding. Also, water up to a foot deep covered several streets.
Widespread flooding. Water collected in streets, backed up into yards and flowed into basements. Rainfall amounts ranged from 2 to 5 inches. Parts of Roosevelt Avenue were under 2 to 3 feet of water. Mason Road and portions of West Avenue east of Roosevelt were closed. Numerous vehicles were towed when they became stranded. High water also covered the intersection of Jackson and Page streets, prompting a resident to add that the water at the intersection was higher than ever before seen in nearly 60 years at the address.
County Road W55 covered with up to a foot of water and closed.
County Road W20 inundated with high water and closed.
Water up to a foot deep covered Highway 34 forcing it to be closed.
Numerous county roads inundated with water and closed.
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, June 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: 5300907, 5300908, 5300909, 5300910, 5300911, 5300912, 5300913, 5300914, 5301623, 5300915, 5300917, 5301622, 5300916.