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 Twin Cities, MN wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jul 18, 8:30 AM CST, 3 hours 31 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TWIN CITIES/CHANHASSEN MN 930 AM CDT THU JUL 18 2002 JUST SENT THE FIRST OF LIKELY SEVERAL ZONE UPDATES TODAY AS WE TIME THE REMNANTS OF AN MCS THRU WRN/SRN CWA TODAY. MCS ROTATING AROUND MID LEVEL RIDGE...WELL NORTH OF SFC BNDRY WHICH CURRENTLY LIES FROM NORTH OF FSD TO KULM...TO NORTH OF LA CROSSE. MOISTURE POOLING NICELY THIS MRNG ALONG THE BOUNDARY /73-75 SFC DEWPTS/...BUT WITH MEAGER UPR WINDS/SFC CONVERGENCE PER WDL PROFILER. HOWEVER...AM WATCHING MCS CLOSELY AS RECENT TRENDS PER KMPX AND NRN PLAINS COMPOSITES SHOW THAT SYSTEM IS TIGTHENING WITH SOME MID-LEVEL DRYING PUNCHING IN BEHIND. LEAD STORM NOW NEAR KOVL COULD BEGIN TO BOW/BECOME SEVERE IF IT MAKES IT THRU NEXT HOUR OF DIURNALLY UNFAVORABLE SVR CLIMATOLOGY. WITH MOISTURE/BOUNDARY AND SOME SUN AHEAD OF IT...STORMS SHUD GROW ESP SW OF METRO IN FROM OVL/RWF SOUTHEAST KAEL/KFBL. WENT LIKELY THESE AREAS WITH SVR MENTIONED. OTHERWISE...WEAK WAA/ISNETROPIC LIFT KICKING SCT SHOWERS OVR REST OF CWA. .MSP...NONE BINAU
The Minneapolis radar (KMPX), 78 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 18:01 UTC.
1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.
Damage to a farm north of Owatonna near I-35. Minor damage to farmstead. Corn flattened.
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: 5309911.