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 Jul 22, 2:35 PM CST, 3 hours 45 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ST LOUIS MO 335 PM CDT MON JUL 22 2002 MAIN CONCERNS THIS PKG NOW TO BE MVMT OF CDFNT AND CHCS FOR PCPN. HOT WX TO END WITH FROPA AND TEMPS RTN TO AT OR BLO NRML FOR NR TERM. MDLS IN GEN AGMT IN TAKING 50H S/WV ACRS NRN STRM WITH RDG REBUILDING OVR CTRL RCKY MTNS BY 30H. RGN WL RMN IN NLY UPR FLOW THRU REST OF WK WITH ANTHR S/WV DROPPING INTO MIDWST BY LT THU. MDLS TAKE SFC FNT WELL S INTO SRN AR BFR STALLING AND THINK THIS MAY BE TOO FAR S. TSRA STARTING TO FIRE ALG CDFNT ATTIM AND SHUD DVLP INTO SOLID-BKN LN ALG AND AHD OF FNT THIS EVE. SHEAR VERY WEAK AND MAIN THREAT IS HVY RAIN AND MICROBURSTS FM SLOW MVG STRMS. COOLER AIR TO INFILTRATE OVRNGT WITH DAYTIME MAXES ABT 10 DEG COOLER THAN TDA. WL ALLW ALL WRNGS AND ADVSYS TO EXPIRE WITH THIS FCST ISSUANCE. MIDWK WL BE DRY WITH NR NRML TEMPS WITH WRMUP BGNG TWD WKEND. WL XTND CHC POPS INTO MON IN XTNDD. .STL...NONE WDB
The St Louis radar (KLSX), 22 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 00:19 UTC.
1 lightning. Local standard time, as filed.
A lighting strike caused a fire which destroyed a 2 story home in an unincorporated area of St. Louis County just west of Ballwin. No one was home at the time of the fire.
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, 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: 5304647.