7 thunderstorm wind, 2 tornado, 1 flash flood, 1 hail, as filed by the National Weather Service.
Every event with a place to put it; 1 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 Jackson, MS wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Dec 18, 9:26 PM CST, 4 hours 24 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE JACKSON MS 925 PM CST WED DEC 17 2002 DID A QUICK UPDATE TO CHANGE THE WATCH. WITH THE BOUNDARY SLOWING DOWN LOWERED THE POPS FOR SOUTHEAST GROUPS. RAISED TEMPS...MOST AREAS HAVE MAINTAINED TEMPS IN THE MID/UPPER 60S FOR THE PAST FEW HOURS. OTHERWISE FORECAST OK. .JAN... AR...NONE. LA...NONE. MS...NONE.
ARZ074-075-LAZ007>009-015-016-023>026-MSZ018-019-025>066-072>074- 191200- HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE JACKSON MS 1144 PM CST WED DEC 18 2002 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR CENTRAL MISSISSIPPI... NORTHEAST LOUISIANA...AND EXTREME SOUTHEAST ARKANSAS .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT... ...THUNDERSTORMS... SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE POSSIBLE OVERNIGHT FOR AREAS ALONG AND WEST OF A LINE FROM EUPORA TO JACKSON TO WINNSBORO LOUISIANA. SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE MORE WIDESPREAD FOR AREAS ALONG AND NORTH OF A LINE FROM RAYVILLE LOUISIANA...TO BELZONI MISSISSIPPI TO GRENADA. WIND GUSTS TO 60 MPH...DANGEROUS LIGHTNING AND HEAVY RAIN CAN BE EXPECTED. ISOLATED TORNADOES WILL ALSO BE POSSIBLE. WITH A MOIST AND UNSTABLE AIRMASS AND STRONG UPPER LEVEL WINDS OVER THE AREA...THUNDERSTORMS WILL DEVELOP OVERNIGHT. A COLD FRONT WILL SLOWLY MOVE INTO THE AREA EARLY THURSDAY...INCREASING THE CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS. SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WIL BE POSSIBLE FOR MUCH OF THE AREA...AS THE COLD FRONT MOVES EAST. DAMAGING WINDS...HEAVY RAIN...DANGEROUS LIGHTNING AND TORNADOES WILL BE POSSIBLE. ...FLOODING... LOCALLY HEAVY RAINFALL WILL BE POSSIBLE OVERNIGHT...MAINLY ALONG AND WEST OF A LINE FROM GRENADA MISSISSIPPI...TO YAZOO CITY TO WINNSBORO LOUISIANA. PONDING OF WATER ON STREETS...HIGHWAYS...CULVERTS AND OTHER LOW LYING AREAS MAY OCCUR. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...FRIDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY... ...DAYS TWO AND THREE... THE COMBINATION OF STRONG UPPER LEVEL WIND SHEAR AND SIGNIFICANT INSTABILITY WILL ALLOW STRONG STORMS TO DEVELOP THURSDAY. SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE POSSIBLE OVER NORTHEAST LOUISIANA...EXTREME SOUTHEAST ARKANSAS...AND MUCH OF MISSISSIPPI. THESE THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE CAPABLE OF PRODUCING LOCALLY HEAVYRAINFALL...FREQUENT DANGEROUS LIGHTNING...LARGE HAIL...AND DAMAGING WINDS. A FEW TORNADOES COULD DEVELOP AS WELL. THE COLD FRONT WILL GRADUALLY MOVE SOUTHEAST AND INTO THE EASTERN COUNTIES OF MISSISSIPPI BY LATE THURSDAY. SHOWERS ANDTHUNDERSTORMS WILL CONTINUE OVER EASTERN MISSISSIPPI THURSDAY EVENING AND BEGIN TO TAPER OFF AFTER MIDNIGHT.BY FRIDAYMORNING...THE COLD FRONT WILL BE OUT OF THE AREA AND HIGH PRESSURE SETTLE OVER THE REGION. ...DAYS FOUR THROUGH SEVEN... AN UPPER LEVEL TROUGH IS EXPECTED TO DEEPEN OVER TEXAS BY TUESDAY. AT THE SURFACE...A STRONG LOW PRESSURE AREA WILL DEVELOP AHEAD OF THIS TROUGH. THIS SURFACE LOW WILL EVENTUALLY MOVE EAST INTO THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI RIVER VALLEY. WITH AN UNSTABLE AIRMASS EXPECTED TO BE IN PLACE...STRONG THUNDERSTORMS COULD DEVELOP ACROSS EXTREME SOUTHEAST ARKANSAS...NORTHEAST LOUISIANA AND MUCH OF MISSISSIPPI ON CHRISTMAS EVE. .SPOTTER CALL TO ACTION STATEMENT... THE ACTIVATION OF STORM SPOTTERS...HAM RADIO OPERATORS...AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT PERSONNEL IN SUPPORT OF SEVERE WEATHER OPERATIONS...IS NOT ANTICIPATED THROUGH TONIGHT. FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT WWW.SRH.NOAA.GOV/JAN. THIS INCLUDES THE GRAPHICAL HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK.
The Little Rock radar (KLZK), 156 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 07:48 UTC.
7 thunderstorm wind, 2 tornado, 1 flash flood, 1 hail. Local standard time, as filed.
Winds from a severe thunderstorm blew a tree onto a house, resulting in damage.
Heavy rainfall from thunderstorms resulted in flooding across the county. Minor street flooding was reported in the community of Symonds and six houses were overcome with three to five feet of water in the city of Rosedale.
Numerous trees were blown down across the county.
Winds associated with a severe thunderstorm blew numerous trees down across the county.
Severe thunderstorm winds blew down numerous trees and powerlines across the area. The downed trees blocked 30 to 40 area roads.
A tornado developed in Newton County, just southwest of the city of Newton. It moved 5.5 miles northeast through the city, resulting in approximately 50 injuries and damage to numerous buildings. In all, over 150 homes and 95 businesses were either damaged or destroyed. The most extensive damage occurred near the city's Wal-Mart, which received heavy roof damage. The tornado lifted just northeast of the intersection of State Road 15 and Interstate 20.
A few trees were blown down across the city.
A tornado touched down around 2:20 PM, about 3.5 miles southwest of the community of Vimville. It moved three miles northeast across Lauderdale County, toppling numerous large trees and damaging almost twenty other homes, barns, and mobile homes. The tornado lifted about one mile northwest of the city.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Mississippi in 2002Every state in 2002This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for Mississippi, 2002Warnings in Mississippi, December 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: 5324133, 5324134, 5324135, 5324136, 5324197, 5324198, 5324199, 5324200, 5324201, 5324202, 5324203.