4 flash flood, 3 hail, 2 thunderstorm wind, as filed by the National Weather Service.
Every event with a place to put it; 4 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. 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 21, 2:15 PM CST, 1 hour 15 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TWIN CITIES/CHANHASSEN MN
315 PM CDT SUN JUL 21 2002
NOT MUCH TIME AS CAP HAS BROKEN. FIRST THINGS FIRST...WILL LET HEAT
ADVISORY GO WITH NEW ZONE ISSUANCE. WHILE IT STILL WILL BE HOT...SEE
NO NEED TO HAVE 3 HEADLINES WITH SVR/FFA WATCHES IN EFFECT FOR THE
SAME AREA. WL NOT REINVENT THE WHEEL...SEE ALL SWODY1/SWOMCD FOR
LATEST SVR DETAILS. STILL WORRIED ABOUT 2 AREAS...AREA UNDER WATCH
AND PTNL STORMS FIRING WEST AND TRAINING OVER PVS STORM AREAS AS
STRONG S/W ENERGY LIFTS INTO MN AT H7 THIS EVENING.
MAY TRIM FLOOD WATCH TO THE SOUTHEAST...BUT WILL MONITOR RADAR AND
MAKE LAST SECOND CALL. SEEMS AS THOUGH THE BEST ACTION/DEEPEST
MOISTURE WILL RUN FROM SCENTL MN TO WRN WI SO MAY JUST PUT WATCH
HERE. VIS PIX SHOWING THINGS STARTING TO POP IN SRN SD SO WL SEE IN
THE NEXT HOUR.
18Z MPX SPECIAL HAD CAP ERODED WITH NUMEROUS BNDRIES FLOATING AROUND
ON 88D. LOTS OF PWATS AND STILL HAVE WSWLY AT H8-H7 TOO TRAIN ECHOES
IF WE CAN BACKBUILD.
NICE WX AFTER TONIGHT AS STRONG FRONT CLEARS CWA. RAPID
MOISTURE/TEMP RETURN ALOFT TUE NIGHT COULD SPELL ANOTHER NOCTURNAL
MCS. VERY ACTIVE TWRDS MID/END OF WEEK.
.MSP...SVR TSTORM WATCH SCNTL MN TO WRN WI TIL 02Z. (#516)
FLOOD WATCH SOUTHEAST THIRD OF CWA TIL 05Z.
BINAUMNZ041>045-047>070-073>078-082>085-091>093-WIZ014>016-023>028-220000- HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TWIN CITIES/CHANHASSEN MN 1214 PM CDT SUN JUL 21 2002 THE STORM PREDICTION CENTER INDICATES THAT THERE IS A SLIGHT RISK OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS OVER THE SOUTHERN HALF OF MINNESOTA...AS WELL AS WEST CENTRAL WISCONSIN THIS AFTERNOON AND EARLY TONIGHT. LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING WINDS...ALONG WITH TORRENTIAL RAINS ARE POSSIBLE WITH THE STORMS THAT DEVELOP IN THE SLIGHT RISK AREA. RAINFALL AMOUNTS COULD EASILY EXCEED OVER THREE INCHES IN A VERY SHORT SPAN TIME. CITIES SUCH AS ST CLOUD AND MINNEAPOLIS/ST PAUL AND OTHER ADJACENT URBAN AREAS COULD EXPERIENCE STREET FLOODING. A FLOOD WATCH FOR POTENTIAL FOR MORE SEVERE FLOODING IS IN EFFECT THROUGH THIS EVENING AS WELL. PRIOR TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE THUNDERSTORMS...OPPRESSIVE HEAT AND HUMIDITY WILL CONTINUE...MAINLY ALONG AND SOUTH OF A LINE...FROM NEW ULM THROUGH THE TWIN CITIES METRO AREA...TO CORNELL WISCONSIN. HEAT INDICES ARE EXPECTED TO REACH OR EXCEED THE 105 DEGREE MARK. KEEP INFORMED ON THE LATEST UPDATES ON THE POTENTIAL FOR SEVERE WEATHER...HEAVY RAINFALL...AND EXCESSIVE HEAT AND HUMIDITY. SPOTTER ACTIVATION MAY BE REQUIRED.
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
4 flash flood, 3 hail, 2 thunderstorm wind. Local standard time, as filed.
Heavy rain. Street flooding in Columbia Heights.
Corn fields flattened, few trees down.
Heavy rain produced street flooding with water two to three feet deep. Several streets barricaded.
Several trees down.
Four to seven inch swath of rain from Wells to Kiester. Two to three feet of water in the city of Wells. County Road #2 closed southeast of Kiester.
Several streets blocked by high water.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Minnesota in 2002Every state in 2002This day in weather historyWarnings 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: 5309922, 5309916, 5309919, 5309917, 5309924, 5309918, 5309923, 5309920, 5309921.