1 lightning, 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 St. Louis, MO wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Aug 19, 9:00 PM CST, 2 hours earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ST LOUIS MO 10 PM CDT MON AUG 19 2002 INTS CNVTN THAT FIRED OVR OZARKS ERY THIS EVE ALG DYING FNTL BNDRY SHUD BCM OUTFLO DOMINATED NXT CPL OF HRS...AND EXPECT TO SEE SVR AND HVY RAIN THRT DMSH IN THIS AREA AS AMS GRDLY STBLZ. HWVR...NRLY STATIONARY STM PRODUCED SM IMPRESSIVE RAINFALL AMTS NW REYNOLDS/W IRON COUNTIES BTWN 01-02Z. MEANWHILE...MSTR CNVGC IN THE 850-700MB LYR PICKING UP ELEVATED CNVTN NICELY FROM SE NE INTO CNTRL MO. FOLLOWING THE LEAD OF THESE FIELDS...AREA SHUD GRDLY LFT NWD OVRNGT...BUT NOT BFR BRINGING SCTD PCPN TO COU/UIN AREAS. .STL...NONE TRUETT
The St Louis radar (KLSX), 101 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 04:58 UTC.
1 lightning. Local standard time, as filed.
Lightning strikes reportedly knocked out power to almost 2000 people in the Bonne Terre area.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Missouri in 2002Every state in 2002This day in weather historyWarnings in Missouri, August 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: 5314026.