1 lightning, as filed by the National Weather Service.
Every event with a place to put it; 1 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 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 New Orleans, LA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jul 11, 1:35 PM CST, 2 hours 55 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW ORLEANS/BATON ROUGE LA 235 PM CDT THU JUL 11 2002 AS IS OFTEN THE CASE IN SUMMER...MID AND UPPER LEVEL HIGH PRESSURE ACTED TO ENHANCE THUNDERSTORM DEVELOPMENT TODAY RATHER THAN SUPPRESS IT. WARM MID LEVEL TEMPERATURES HAVE BEEN OFFSET BY MID/UPPER LEVEL DIVERGENCE AND HOT SURFACE TEMPERATURES COMBINED WITH LOW LEVEL SURFACE MOISTURE FLUX CONVERGENCE. MODEL CONSENSUS POPS ARE 30 PERCENT TONIGHT WHICH FITS WELL WITH RADAR TRENDS AND THIS PATTERN. A FEW OF THE THUNDERSTORM CLUSTERS ARE PERSISTING OR TRAINING OVER THE SAME AREA ACROSS PORTIONS OF EXTREME SOUTH MS AND EAST CENTRAL LA...SO LOCALLY HEAVY RAINFALL AMOUNTS ARE LIKELY TO CONTINUE THROUGH THE EVENING. THE 12Z SLIDELL SOUNDING IS NO LONGER REPRESENTATIVE AS SUSPECTED IN MY PREVIOUS FORECAST DISCUSSION. GOES-8 DPI SOUNDER PRECIPITABLE WATER LOOPS SHOW VALUES HAVE INCREASED FROM THE 1.5 TO 1.7 INCH RANGE TO NEAR 2 INCHES NORTH AND WEST OF LAKE PONTCHARTRAIN AND ALONG THE MS COAST. REGARDING THE TROPICS...BUOY DATA STILL SHOWS A WEAK BROAD AREA OF LOW PRESSURE IN THE NORTH CENTRAL GULF OF MEXICO. MOST OF THE CONVECTION IS WELL REMOVED FROM THE SURFACE LOW AND IS OCCURRING NEAR THE UPPER LOW OVER SOUTHEAST GULF AND A DEFORMATION AXIS TO THE WEST OF THE UPPER LOW NEAR 25N. TROPICAL CYCLONE DEVELOPMENT...IF ANY...SHOULD NOT OCCUR UNTIL LATE TONIGHT OR TOMORROW WHEN UPPER LEVEL WINDS BECOME MORE FAVORABLE. REFER TO THE LATEST HPC TROPICAL WEATHER OUTLOOK/ DISCUSSION FOR THE LATEST INFORMATION. THE HIGH PRECIPITABLE WATER/MOISTURE CONTENT THAT IS SETTLING BACK DOWN UPON THE CENTRAL GULF COAST REGION IS LIKELY TO STICK AROUND THROUGH THE WEEKEND. AN UPPER LOW/TROUGH OVER THE UPPER MS VALLEY/ NORTHERN PLAINS IS EXPECTED TO MOVE SOUTH INTO THE MID MS VALLEY AND SOUTHERN PLAINS BY EARLY SATURDAY. THE ASSOCIATED SURFACE COLD FRONT...NOW OVER THE MID SOUTH AND ARKLATEX REGION...WILL MOVE SOUTH INTO CENTRAL LA AND SOUTH MS FRIDAY AFTERNOON...STALL OUT IN THAT VICINITY THROUGH EARLY SATURDAY...THEN MOVE BACK WELL NORTH OF THE FORECAST AREA BY SUNDAY. WILL CARRY 30 PERCENT POPS AT NIGHT AND 50 PERCENT DURING THE DAY THROUGH SATURDAY. SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS COULD BECOME MORE NUMEROUS IN PLACES...SO LATER UPDATES TO INCREASE RAIN CHANCES TO 60 PERCENT OR HIGHER MAY BE REQUIRED. THE UPPER TROUGH SHOULD SLOWLY START TO RETROGRADE WEST SUNDAY THROUGH TUESDAY WITH AN UPPER RIDGE BUILDING FROM THE SOUTH ATLANTIC COAST TO THE NORTH GULF COAST. THIS SHOULD RESULT IN A SLIGHT /5 TO 10 PERCENT / DAY TO DAY LOWERING OF RAIN CHANCES AND A SLOW INCREASE TO ABOVE NORMAL TEMPERATURES SUNDAY THROUGH TUESDAY. SLIGHTLY ABOVE NORMAL TEMPERATURES AND NEAR TO SLIGHTLY BELOW NORMAL POPS ARE FORECAST NEXT WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY AS A DEEP LAYER OF HIGH PRESSURE DEVELOPS NEAR THE CENTRAL GULF COAST. MCB 72/92/72/90/73 35352 BTR 73/93/74/90/73 35352 MSY 76/92/76/90/76 35352 GPT 73/91/74/89/73 35352 .NEW...NONE LA...NONE. MS...NONE. 22
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 lightning. Local standard time, as filed.
A lightning strike sparked a house fire causing minor damage.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Louisiana in 2002Every state in 2002This day in weather historyWarnings in Louisiana, July 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: 5311252.