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 New Orleans, LA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Mar 20, 3:50 AM CST, 8 hours 25 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW ORLEANS/BATON ROUGE LA 350 AM CST WED MAR 20 2002 WATER VAPOR LOOPS SHOW THE UPPER LOW MOVING SOUTHEAST ACROSS NW/W CENTRAL TEXAS. AN UPPER LEVEL JET STREAK MOVED OUT OF NORTH MEXICO INTO SOUTH CENTRAL TEXAS OVER THE LAST 6 HOURS...APPARENTLY DECREASING THE COUPLED JET STRUCTURE OVER THE ARK-LA-TEX REGION. LIGHTNING PLOT LOOPS SHOW A DRAMATIC DECREASE IN DEEP CONVECTION IN THIS AREA. THE MODELS ARE IN GOOD AGREEMENT WITH THE MOVEMENT OF THE UPPER SYSTEM...AND APPEAR TO MATCH SATELLITE TRENDS FAIRLY CLOSE AT 500 MB. THE ONLY INITIALIZATION PROBLEM WAS THE MODELS APPEARED TOO FAR WEST WITH THE JET STREAK OVER SOUTH TEXAS. IN ADDITION...THE MODELS DO NOT APPEAR TO HAVE A HANDLE ON THE PRE-FRONTAL/OUTFLOW SURFACE BOUNDARY FROM SE TEXAS INTO NORTH CENTRAL LOUISIANA...AND THE RAPIDLY FALLING PRESSURE NEAR BUOY 42002 WHERE SE WINDS ARE PEAKING AT 39 KNOTS. WILL GO WITH A SOLUTION FAIRLY CLOSE TO THE PREVIOUS FORECAST PACKAGE...BUT WILL MAKE SOME ADJUSTMENTS TO ACCOUNT FOR CURRENT TRENDS...BASICALLY GOING WITH A SLIGHTLY FASTER WIND SHIFT/COLD FRONTAL PASSAGE. PVA AND AN AREA OF UPPER DIVERGENCE MOVING ACROSS THE FORECAST AREA WILL SUPPORT CONVECTIVE DEVELOPMENT... PARTICULARLY WITH DAYTIME HEATING MIDDAY INTO EARLY THIS EVENING. MODELS SUGGEST A SURFACE LOW MAY TRACK THROUGH THE FORECAST AREA... BUT LOW DEVELOPMENT IN THE GULF SHOULD MAKE FOR A WEAKER MORE NORTHERN WAVE MOVING INLAND. REGARDLESS OF LOW LEVEL FEATURES... THERE SHOULD BE SUFFICIENT INSTABILITY...SHEAR AND MOISTURE FOR SCATTERED TO NUMEROUS SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS...BUT SEVERE POTENTIAL APPEARS TOO LIMITED FOR MENTION IN THE ZONES. SOME POST-FRONTAL RAIN WILL LINGER BEHIND THE COLD FRONT IN THE NW ZONES THIS EVENING...AND THE COASTAL ZONES THROUGH ABOUT MIDNIGHT. DRIER AND COOLER AIR WILL OVERSPREAD THE AREA LATE TONIGHT THROUGH FRIDAY. THE INITIAL SURGE OF COOL AIR SHOULD BE SHALLOW...SO WILL KEEP THURSDAY/S HIGHS ON THE WARM SIDE OF GUIDANCE...THEN THE ETA SUGGESTS A SURGE OF COOLER POLAR AIR THURSDAY NIGHT INTO FRIDAY. WILL GO SEVERAL DEGREES BELOW THE COLDER AVN MOS THURSDAY NIGHT. TEMPS ON FRIDAY NIGHT WILL BE COLDEST...DOWN IN THE 30S IN MUCH OF THE AREA. A WARMUP STARTS SATURDAY AFTERNOON...THEN THE NEXT CHANCE OF PRECIP ARRIVES NEXT TUESDAY AS ANOTHER SW U.S. UPPER TROUGH APPROACHES. PRELIM NUMBERS... MCB 79/54/72/39 66-0 BTR 81/56/73/43 65-0 MSY 82/60/74/48 55-0 GPT 77/58/75/43 46-0 .NEW...NONE LA...NONE. MS...NONE. 22
LAZ034>040-046>050-056>070-MSZ068>071-077-080>082-201700- HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW ORLEANS LA 625 AM CST WED MAR 20 2002 .SYNOPSIS... WARM AND HUMID AIR WILL REMAIN OVER THE CENTRAL GULF COAST REGION TODAY. A COLD FRONT AND UPPER LEVEL DISTURBANCE WILL MOVE THROUGH SOUTHEAST LOUISIANA AND SOUTH MISSISSIPPI LATE THIS AFTERNOON AND THIS EVENING. .THUNDERSTORMS... SCATTERED SHOWERS WILL DEVELOP BY MIDDAY WITH A FEW THUNDERSTORMS POSSIBLE. SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS WILL INCREASE IN NUMBER AND INTENSITY THIS AFTERNOON. THE STRONGER THUNDERSTORMS WILL PRODUCE FREQUENT LIGHTNING...BRIEF HEAVY RAIN...AND WIND GUSTS OF 30 TO 40 MILES PER HOUR. THERE IS A SLIGHT CHANCE FOR A FEW SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS THIS AFTERNOON. ANY SEVERE STORMS ARE EXPECTED TO BE ISOLATED IN NATURE WITH DAMAGING STRAIGHT LINE WINDS BEING THE PRIMARY THREAT. ACTIONS... WHILE THERE COULD BE SOME ISOLATED SEVERE STORMS...ACTIVATION OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT PERSONNEL AND STORM SPOTTERS FOR WIDESPREAD SEVERE WEATHER IS NOT EXPECTED TO BE NECESSARY AT THIS TIME. EMERGENCY MANAGERS SHOULD HOWEVER MONITOR ANY UPDATES FROM THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TODAY. FOR MORE INFORMATION...VISIT OUR WEB SITE AT WWW.SRH.NOAA.GOV/LIX (ALL LOWER CASE).
LAZ034>040-046>050-056>070-MSZ068>071-077-080>082-200600- HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW ORLEANS LA 1030 AM CST WED MAR 20 2002 .SYNOPSIS...WARM AND HUMID CONDITIONS WILL REMAIN OVER THE CENTRAL GULF COAST REGION TODAY. IN ADDITION...A COLD FRONT AND ASSOCIATED UPPER LEVEL DISTURBANCE WILL MOVE THROUGH SOUTHEAST LOUISIANA AND SOUTH MISSISSIPPI LATE THIS AFTERNOON AND THIS EVENING. .THUNDERSTORMS... SCATTERED TO NUMEROUS SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE POSSIBLE THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING ACROSS SOUTHEAST LOUISIANA AND SOUTH MISSISSIPPI ALONG AND AHEAD OF THE ADVANCING COLD FRONT. THE STRONGER THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE CAPABLE OF PRODUCING FREQUENT LIGHTNING...BRIEF HEAVY RAIN AND WIND GUSTS OF 30 TO 40 MILES PER HOUR. THERE IS A SLIGHT CHANCE THAT A FEW THUNDERSTORMS MAY APPROACH SEVERE THRESHOLDS. ANY SEVERE STORMS THAT DEVELOP ARE EXPECTED TO BE ISOLATED IN NATURE WITH DAMAGING STRAIGHT LINE WINDS AND SMALL HAIL BEING THE PRIMARY THREATS. .ACTIONS...WHILE THERE REMAINS A POSSIBILITY FOR SOME ISOLATED SEVERE STORMS...ACTIVATION OF THE STORM SPOTTER NETWORK IS NOT ANTICIPATED AT THIS TIME. HOWEVER...EMERGENCY MANAGERS SHOULD MONITOR ANY UPDATES FROM THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE. FOR MORE INFORMATION...VISIT OUR WEB SITE AT WWW.SRH.NOAA.GOV/LIX (ALL LOWER CASE).
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.
A tornado briefly touched down causing roof damage to two houses and knocking one of the homes off of its cinder blocks.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Louisiana in 2002Every state in 2002This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for Louisiana, 2002Warnings in Louisiana, March 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: 5286543.