Heat in Maryland, August 1 to 5, 2002

Name: Heat in Maryland, August 1 to 5, 2002
Start: 2002-08-01T10:00
End: 2002-08-05T20:00
Location: Maryland

August 1 to 5, 2002 · NWS LWX · 14 events in 14 counties and zones

High pressure off the Atlantic Coast pumped hot and humid air into the Mid-Atlantic region. This caused high temperatures to reach between 92 and 100 degrees August 1st through the 5th.

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it; 10 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. 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: 7
Injuries: 0
Property damage: None recorded
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 14

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 LWX wrote it up.

High pressure off the Atlantic Coast pumped hot and humid air into the Mid-Atlantic region. This caused high temperatures to reach between 92 and 100 degrees August 1st through the 5th. Dew points in the upper 60s to mid 70s forced heat indexes to soar to between 98 and 110 degrees. Seven residents of Baltimore County and Prince George's County succumbed to the excessive heat. In Baltimore City, a 56 year old man and a 74 year old man were found dead in their home on the 5th. On the 6th, an 88 year old man was found dead in his home. On the 7th, a 36 year old man being held in jail was found dead in his cell from heat related causes. In Baltimore County, a 30 year old woman was found dead in her home. In Prince George's County, a 51 year old woman died in her home on the 5th. On the 7th, a 46 year old man died from a combination of drug use and the heat. In Frederick County, eleven people in participating in an outdoor activity in Ijamsville were treated for heat illnesses. The heat was also blamed for buckling pavement on Interstate 70 near the Route 355 exit. Several regional power companies noted record energy consumption during this heat wave, the hottest in 5 years.

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 Baltimore/Washington wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Aug 1, 9:45 AM EST, 15 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Aug 1, 9:45 AM EST, 15 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BALTIMORE/WASHINGTON
1045 AM EDT THU AUG 01 2002

AREA IS ON THE ERN PERIPHERY OF THE MASSIVE UPR LVL RIDGE THIS AFTRN.
PLENTY OF SUNSHINE THIS AFTRN WITH SCT CU AND MAYBE A FEW TCU DVLPG
AS WE RISE ABV THE CONVECTIVE TEMP. 12Z IAD SOUNDING A TAD BIT
COOLER AT 500MB AND FZG LVL A BIT LWR THAN PAST DAYS. IN
ADDTN...MODIFIED SOUNDING PRODUCES CAPES IN EXCESS OF 2000 J/KG AND
LIS OF -4C TO -6C. HOWEVER...NO TRIGGER EVIDENT FOR CONVECTION.
COULD SEE A CELL OR TWO POP OVR THE MTNS GIVEN OROGRAPHIC LIFT BUT
THAT DOESNT WARRANT MORE THAN A 10 POP. SHORTWAVES COMING AROUND
THE ERN PERIPHERY OF THE UPR LVL RIDGE COULD ACT AS TRIGGERS BUT WE
ARE IN BETWEEN WEAK SHORTWAVES THIS AFTRN WITH ONE PRESSING SWD INTO
N.C. AND ANOTHER ONE MOVING INTO NRN PA BY LATE AFTRN. BOTTOM LINE...
NO TSTMS MENTIONED IN FCST...BUT AGAIN WOULD NOT BE SURPRISED TO SEE
A CELL POP OVR THE MTNS LATE IN THE DAY.

12Z SOUNDING...LOW LVL THKNS AND ALL AVAILABLE GUIDANCE SUGGESTS MID
90S MOST AREAS (COOLER HIER ELEVS) THIS AFTRN. SEE NO REASON DWPTS
WOULD CHG MUCH THIS AFTRN AND MOST DWPTS IN THE UPR 60S NOW. THIS
COMBINED WITH TEMPS IN THE MID 90S WILL YIELD HEAT INDICES NEAR 100
DURING THE AFTRN...RIGHT ON THE BRINK OF ADVISORY CRITERIA. THE
PROBLEM IS DCA WHICH HAS A DWPT ABV 70. DWPT OF 71 WITH A TEMP OF
95F YIELDS A HEAT INDEX THIS AFTRN OF 102F FOR THE CITY WHICH IS ABV
CRITERIA. WILL GO AHEAD AND ISSUE AN ADVISORY UNTIL 8 PM FOR THE
URBAN HEAT ISLANDS OF DC AND BALTIMORE UNTIL 8 PM.

FYI...TDA WILL MAKE DAY 31 OF TEMPS 90F OR HIGHER AT DCA THIS YEAR.
NORMAL FOR A YEAR IS ABOUT 38 DAYS.  WE ARE NO WHERE NEAR THE RECORD
OF 67 DAYS AT DCA SET IN THE OPPRESSIVE SUMMER OF 1980.

.LWX...
DC...HEAT ADVISORY UNTIL 800 PM EDT THURSDAY FOR ZONE DCZ001.
MD...HEAT ADVISORY UNTIL 800 PM EDT THURSDAY FOR ZONE MDZ011.
VA...HEAT ADVISORY UNTIL 800 PM EDT THURSDAY FOR ZONE VAZ054.
WV...NONE.

WALSTON

The radar

The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

14 heat. Local standard time, as filed.

Heat, St. Mary'S

When: August 1, 10:00 AM EST to August 5, 8:00 PM EST
Where: St. Mary'S forecast zone
Reported by: AWOS,ASOS,MESONET,ETC
Coordinates: 38.216, -76.529 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Heat, Calvert

When: August 1, 10:00 AM EST to August 5, 8:00 PM EST
Where: Calvert forecast zone
Reported by: AWOS,ASOS,MESONET,ETC
Coordinates: 38.535, -76.531 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Heat, Charles

When: August 1, 10:00 AM EST to August 5, 8:00 PM EST
Where: Charles forecast zone
Reported by: AWOS,ASOS,MESONET,ETC
Coordinates: 38.474, -77.013 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Heat, Prince Georges

When: August 1, 10:00 AM EST to August 5, 8:00 PM EST
Where: Prince Georges forecast zone
Deaths: 2 direct, 0 indirect
Reported by: AWOS,ASOS,MESONET,ETC
Coordinates: 38.830, -76.847 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Heat, Anne Arundel

When: August 1, 10:00 AM EST to August 5, 8:00 PM EST
Where: Anne Arundel forecast zone
Reported by: AWOS,ASOS,MESONET,ETC
Coordinates: 38.994, -76.568 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Heat, Harford

When: August 1, 10:00 AM EST to August 5, 8:00 PM EST
Where: Harford forecast zone
Reported by: AWOS,ASOS,MESONET,ETC

Heat, Carroll

When: August 1, 10:00 AM EST to August 5, 8:00 PM EST
Where: Carroll forecast zone
Reported by: AWOS,ASOS,MESONET,ETC
Coordinates: 39.563, -77.022 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Heat, Howard

When: August 1, 10:00 AM EST to August 5, 8:00 PM EST
Where: Howard forecast zone
Reported by: AWOS,ASOS,MESONET,ETC

Heat, Southern Baltimore

When: August 1, 10:00 AM EST to August 5, 8:00 PM EST
Where: Southern Baltimore forecast zone
Deaths: 5 direct, 0 indirect
Reported by: AWOS,ASOS,MESONET,ETC
Coordinates: 39.367, -76.614 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Heat, Northern Baltimore

When: August 1, 10:00 AM EST to August 5, 8:00 PM EST
Where: Northern Baltimore forecast zone
Reported by: AWOS,ASOS,MESONET,ETC
Coordinates: 39.443, -76.616 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Heat, Montgomery

When: August 1, 10:00 AM EST to August 5, 8:00 PM EST
Where: Montgomery forecast zone
Reported by: AWOS,ASOS,MESONET,ETC

Heat, Frederick

When: August 1, 10:00 AM EST to August 5, 8:00 PM EST
Where: Frederick forecast zone
Reported by: AWOS,ASOS,MESONET,ETC
Coordinates: 39.472, -77.398 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Heat, Washington

When: August 1, 10:00 AM EST to August 5, 8:00 PM EST
Where: Washington forecast zone
Reported by: AWOS,ASOS,MESONET,ETC
Coordinates: 39.604, -77.814 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Heat, Allegany

When: August 1, 10:00 AM EST to August 5, 8:00 PM EST
Where: Allegany forecast zone
Reported by: AWOS,ASOS,MESONET,ETC

The people who died

As the offices recorded each death: direct deaths were caused by the weather itself, indirect ones by something it set in motion.

Event	Date	Age	Sex	Where	Kind
Heat, Prince Georges	2002-08-05	51	Female	Permanent Home	Direct
Heat, Prince Georges	2002-08-07	46	Male	Other	Direct
Heat, Southern Baltimore	2002-08-07	36	Male	Other	Direct
Heat, Southern Baltimore	2002-08-05	56	Male	Permanent Home	Direct
Heat, Southern Baltimore	2002-08-05	74	Male	Permanent Home	Direct
Heat, Southern Baltimore	2002-08-06	88	Male	Permanent Home	Direct
Heat, Southern Baltimore	2002-08-02	30	Female	Permanent Home	Direct

What these are

Heat: Heat below excessive heat criteria that still caused deaths, injuries or significant impacts.

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

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in Maryland in 2002 Every state in 2002 This day in weather history Warnings in Maryland, August 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: 5313958, 5313959, 5313960, 5313961, 5313962, 5313963, 5313964, 5313965, 5313966, 5313967, 5313968, 5313969, 5313970, 5313971.