Name: Hail in Iowa, September 18, 2002
Start: 2002-09-18T03:44
End: 2002-09-18T03:44
Location: Iowa

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

Open the live radar over this ground

The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: None recorded
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 1

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 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 Omaha, NE wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Sep 18, 2:00 AM CST, 1 hour 44 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Sep 18, 2:00 AM CST, 1 hour 44 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE OMAHA/VALLEY NE
300 AM CDT WED SEP 18 2002

COMPLEX FORECAST WITH MAIN CHALLENGE BEING TSTM TIMING AND CHANCES
FIRST TWO PERIODS.

SYNOPSIS...DIGGING LONG WAVE TROF OVR WRN US HAS SENT FIRST
SHORTWAVE INTO WRN NEB AND CNTRL SD...WHILE MAIN ENERGY LIES FURTHER
BACK INTO NEVADA AREA. AT THE SFC...DOUBLE BARRELED LOW HAS TAKEN
SHAPE WITH THE UPPER LEVEL SUPPORT AIDING THE NRN LO OVR WRN SD.
SECOND LO IS OVR SWRN KS AND WL SEE BETTER SUPPORT ONCE PREVIOUS
MENTIONED SHORTWAVE OVR NEVADA KICKS OUT LATER TDY.  IN THE
MEANTIME...STRONG MOIST AND WARM AIR ADVECTION UNDERWAY ACROSS THE
REGION WITH A 50KT LLJ NOTED ON REGIONAL PROFILERS.  SFC DEWPOINTS
HAVE CLIMBED TO AROUND 60 OVR MUCH OF AREA.  SCATTERED THUNDESTORMS
ARE ONGOING OVR PORTIONS OF THE CWFA...LIKELY AIDED BY MOIST
ADVECTION AND NOSE OF LLJ.  HAIL NOT OUT OF THE QUESTION WITH LOW
WET BULB ZERO HEIGHT THIS AM.

FORECAST...SCATTERED CONVECTION POSSIBLE INTO MID DAY AIDED BY LLJ
AND WAA.  HAVE SLIGHTLY LOWERED HIGHS BASED ON FORECASTED CLOUD
COVER.  MOST ACTIVE TIME WL BE LATE AFTERNOON/EARLY EVENING WHEN THE
UPPER LEVEL SUPPORT FINALLY ROLLS IN AND ETA SUGGESTING UPPER
COUPLED JET STRUCTURE. REGION WL BE MODERATELY UNSTABLE WITH ETA-KF
GIVING AREA CAPE VALUES OF 2500-3000J/KG.  SHEAR IS SUFFICIENT...
FOR SUPERCELLS...ESPECIALLY OVR SERN NEB.  MODERATE RISK FOR SERN
COUNTIES AND SLIGHT RISK FOR REMAINDER OF AREA.  WL INCLUDE SVR
WORDING IN SERN ZONES.  SFC TROF WL MOVE THRU BY MIDNIGHT AND MAY
SEE LINGERING ACTIVITY INTO EARLY MORNING.  UPPER TROF AXIS FINALLY
MOVES THRU THU MORNING AND ETA AND AVN BOTH GENERATING PRECIP OVR
SERN NEB AND NERN KS.  WL MENTION 20 POPS FOR THIS TIME FRAME.

AREA IN COOL NWRLY FLOW AFTER THIS SYSTEM.  NEXT CHANCE OF PRECIP
WAS SAT AND HAVE LOWERED POPS SLIGHTLY AS MOISTURE LOOKS RATHER
LIMITED FOR NOW.  OTHERWISE...NO CHANGES MADE TO EXTENDED.

.OMA...NONE.

GRIFFIS

The radar

The Omaha radar (KOAX), 98 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 09:44 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 hail. Local standard time, as filed.

Hail, Monona

When: September 18, 3:44 AM CST
Where: Monona County, Ute
Measured: 1 in hail
Reported by: GENERAL PUBLIC
Coordinates: 42.050, -95.700

What these are

Hail: Hail three-quarters of an inch or larger, or smaller hail that caused damage, filed with the largest stone measured.

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

The same day elsewhere

More

Every storm in Iowa in 2002 Every state in 2002 This day in weather history Warnings in Iowa, September 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: 5320214.