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 Sioux Falls, SD wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jul 10, 2:52 PM CST, 4 hours 15 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SIOUX FALLS SD 352 PM CDT WED JUL 10 2002 STRONG UPPER LOW CRNTLY OVER W CNTRL MN IS PROGGED TO MOVE TOWARD N CNTRL IA...AND TOWARD THE MS VALLEY OF IA AND IL. PLENTY OF COLD AIR ALOFT EXISTS WITH THIS SYSTEM...CREATING INSTABILITY LATE THIS AFTN WITH THE PARTIAL SUNSHINE. THEREFORE WORDED SOME TS THRU SUNSET... AND WL PROBABLY GO SCT IN THE NE ZONES CLOSER TO THE UPR CORE. AFT SUNSET...MESOETA INSTABILITY PROGS SHOW A RAPID STABILIZATION SO THOUGHTS ARE THAT THE TS SHOULD END...BUT THE SHRA MAY CONTINUE. LARGE MASS OF CLOUDINESS NORTH OF THE CWA WL BEGIN TO FILTER DOWN INTO THE FA FM N TO S...ALONG WITH A STRONG MID LVL PV/PV ADV LOBE MOVG THRU WITH THE UPR LOW. SO THEREFORE DID NOT WANT TO SPLIT HAIRS WITH ANY BEFORE OR AFTER MIDNIGHT WORDING. ON THURSDAY...SFC INVERTED TROF BEGINS TO FLATTEN A BIT AS STRONG HIGH PRES BUILDS OVER THE GRTLKS. THIS BEGINS TO ADVERTISED ERLY FETCH OF AIR INTO THE AREA...LIKELY BLOWING IN LOWER CLOUDS AND DEFINITELY SOME CHILLY TEMPS FOR THIS TIME OF YEAR. IN FACT...COLD CORE OF THE 850MB TEMPS SEEMS TO BE BULLSEYED RIGHT IN THE WINDOM TO SPENCER IA AREA...AND COUPLED WITH THE CLDS AND POSSIBLE SHRA...THIS AREA MAY NOT HIT 70. ENTIRE CWA WL BE COOL WITH THIS FLOW...AND HOW FAR ANYONES READINGS GET INTO THE 70S WL LARGELY DEPEND ON HOW MUCH SHRA ACTIVITY LINGERS. MODEL RH TIME SECTIONS DO NOT SHOW A LOT OF DRYING THURSDAY NIGHT...HOWEVER SOME DRY AIR IN S CNTRL MN WHICH IS NORTH OF THE UPR LOW BY THIS TIME...BEGINS TO ADVECT IN FM THE EAST. THIS SHOULD GIVE THE NERN QUAD OF THE CWA SOME PARTIAL CLEARING. HOWEVER THE NW IA TO YANKTON AREA REMAINS STUBBORNLY CLOUDY JUST TO THE WEST OF THE UPPER LOW. AND WITH THE LOW LVL WINDS VEERING TO A LIGHT SERLY DIRECTION IN THE WRN CWA THU NIGHT...AM CONCERNED THAT THESE CLDS WL ADVECT RIGHT UP THE JAMES RIVER. THEREFORE KEPT THE WRN CWA PRETTY PESSISMISTIC ON CLD COVER. BUT LEFT THE ENTIRE CWA DRY FOR NOW. THOUGHT ABOUT FOG WORDING FRI MRNG WITH THE WET GROUND...MAINLY IN NW IA...BUT LEFT OUT FOR NOW. WITH THE UPPER LOW DIVING SLOWLY STRAIGHT SOUTH OF FRIDAY...EXPECT PLENTY OF CU TO POP OVER THE CWA WITH SOME LOW LVL INSTABILITY AND STRONG LOW LVL MSTR. IN FACT...NW IA AND YANKTON MAY START OUT FAIRLY CLOUDY. RH TIME SECTIONS FINALLY BEGIN TO DRY OUT FRI NIGHT AS THE UPPER LOW OOZES SWD. ALL MED RANGE MODELS ARE IN BETTER AGREEMENT TDAY IN DROPPING THIS UPPER LOW INTO THE SE U.S...AND ACTUALLY RETROGRADING SLIGHTLY BACK TOWARD TX AND AR IN TIME FOR THE LATE WEEKEND AND EARLY NEXT WEEK. ECMWF SEEMS TO BE THE ODD ONE OUT FOR NEXT TUESDAY IN DROPPING A STRONG CANADIAN WAVE DOWN THE NW FLOW TOWARD THE GRTLKS...WITH THE NEW AVN...00Z MRF AND 00Z NOGAPS KEEPING MORE OF A QS ZONAL FLOW OVER THE THE NRN TIER OF STATES WITH A FLATTER RIDGE. THE LATTER SOLN WAS FOLLOWED. ANYWAY...LOOK FOR A WARMUP NEXT WEEK...BUT THE UPPER LOW WL KEEP TEMPS COOLER FOR THIS WEEKEND THAN ORIGNALLY FCST. .FSD...NONE 31
The Sioux Falls radar (KFSD), 151 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 01:08 UTC.
1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.
A tornado developed over open country and caused no reported damage before crossing into Martin County.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Minnesota in 2002Every state in 2002This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for Minnesota, 2002Warnings in Minnesota, 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: 5310860.