Name: Hail in Minnesota, August 26, 2002
Start: 2002-08-26T18:24
End: 2002-08-26T18:24
Location: Minnesota

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 Duluth, MN wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Aug 26, 1:53 PM CST, 4 hours 31 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Aug 26, 1:53 PM CST, 4 hours 31 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DULUTH MN
253 PM CDT MON AUG 26 2002

FORECAST FOCUS IN NEAR TERM IS THUNDERSTORM DEVELOPMENT OVERNIGHT.

MODELS IN AGREEMENT WITH OVERALL THEME OF MOVING UPPER AND SURFACE
LOW SLOWLY EAST THROUGH NEXT 48 HOURS. DIFFERENCE OCCURS WITH
PLACING FEATURES AND SPEED OF THE MOVEMENT. FOLLOWED THE SLOWER ETA
FOR THIS PACKAGE.

LAKE BREEZE HAS DEVELOPED WELL INLAND...AS DLH TEMPERATURE REACHED
74 FOR A TIME THIS MORNING...AND HAS SLID BACK TO 69-70. FLOW OFF
LAKE SUPERIOR TO LAST INTO TUESDAY AS SURFACE HIGH BUILDS OUT OF
ONTARIO. LOW LEVEL FLOW TO REMAIN EAST TO SOUTHEAST...BUT 850MB
FLOW TO GRADUALLY TURN OUT OF THE SOUTH AND BRING SOME MOISTURE BACK
INTO THE NORTHLAND. A SHARP MOISTURE GRADIENT EXISTS IN THE LOW
LEVELS AND DLH CWA IS IN THE MIDDLE. WILL KEEP CHANCE FOR
SHOWERS/THUNDERSTORMS TONIGHT BUT CUT BACK MOST ZONES AND REMOVE
FOR PARTS OF NORTHWEST WISCONSIN WHICH IS CLOSER TO THE HIGH AND
MORE STABLE AIR. EXCEPTION IN NORTHWEST WI MAY BE EARLY THIS
EVENING...AS AN ISOLATED THUNDERSTORM IS POSSIBLE ON LAKE BREEZE AND
SURFACE BOUNDARY. AT THIS TIME...WILL NOT MENTION. NORTHWEST ZONES TO
HAVE BEST CHANCE AT SEEING RAIN TONIGHT AS MEAN WIND IS LIGHT WEST TO
SOUTHWEST AND THAT AREA IS CLOSER TO BETTER MOISTURE AND LIFT.

TUESDAY...BETTER RETURN FLOW SETS UP AND WILL KEEP THE CHANCE FOR
SHOWERS/THUNDERSTORMS GOING. LAKE BREEZE SHOULD BECOME WELL
ESTABLISHED AS WELL WITH DECENT DENSITY GRADIENT DUE TO THE DRIER AIR
OUT OF THE HIGH AND HIGHER DEWPOINTS INLAND.

BETTER CHANCE FOR SHOWERS/THUNDERSTORMS DEVELOPS TUESDAY NIGHT INTO
WEDNESDAY AS SURFACE BOUNDARY AND UPPER LOW MOVE FURTHER EAST.

A BLEND OF THE GUIDANCE TEMPERATURES WERE USED.

.DLH...NONE.

MELDE

The radar

The Duluth radar (KDLH), 192 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 00:23 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 hail. Local standard time, as filed.

Hail, Koochiching

When: August 26, 6:24 PM CST
Where: Koochiching County, Big Falls
Measured: 0.75 in hail
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER
Coordinates: 48.183, -93.800

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 Minnesota in 2002 Every state in 2002 This day in weather history Warnings in Minnesota, 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: 5312466.