A nearly stationary front, combined with abundant moisture and a strong upper level storm system to produce scattered thunderstorms Wednesday evening. A few reports of pea size hail and gusty winds were received.
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 episode as NWS DVN wrote it up.
A nearly stationary front, combined with abundant moisture and a strong upper level storm system to produce scattered thunderstorms Wednesday evening. A few reports of pea size hail and gusty winds were received. The thunderstorms continued into Thursday morning. The threat shifted to heavy rain and flash flooding, as thunderstorms continuously developed over some of the same areas. A trained spotter in Athens in Clark County measured 3 inches of rain in just 1 hour. Storm total rainfall generally ranged from 2 to 5 inches across Clark and Scotland Counties. Just 48 hours earlier some of the same areas received anywhere from 1 to 3 inches of rain. As a result, much of the heavy rain went into runoff resulting in fairly widespread flash flooding.
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 Quad Cities, IA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jun 13, 1:50 AM CST, 1 hour 10 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE QUAD CITIES IA IL 250 AM CDT THU JUN 13 2002 SURFACE FRONT LINGERS ACROSS NORTHERN MO AND CENTRAL IL...WITH RECURRING SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS TRACKING OVER CWA. HAVE HAD SOME SEVERE WX...BUT MORE FLOODING. UPPER LEVEL ANALYSIS CONTINUES TO INDICATE SUPPORT FOR SUCH ACTIVITY...WITH A DIFFUSE 850MB LEVEL FRONT OVER THE REGION....AND THE UPPER LEVEL LOW SPINNING SHORT WAVES OVER THE TOP OF THIS FRONT. MAIN CONCERN THIS FORECAST CONTINUES TO BE THE TIMING AND PLACEMENT OF PRECIPITATION. MODELS REMAIN HIGHLY DIVERGENT...ESPECIALLY WITH QPF. MODEL OF CHOICE IS AVN...MAINLY BECAUSE IT SEEMS TO HAVE BEST HANDLE ON SURFACE FEATURES AT 06Z. HOWEVER...THINK IT IS ALSO AFFECTED BY CONVECTIVE FEEDBACK...AND HAVE TO TAKE QPF WITH GRAIN OF SALT. TODAY...SHORT TERM FORECASTING TECHNIQUES AND THE POSITION OF THE SURFACE LOW WOULD IMPLY THAT SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE LINGERING OVER AREA UNTIL MID MORNING. WITH SO MUCH CURRENT WATER TROUBLE WILL HANG ON TO FLOOD WATCH FOR CURRENT LOCATIONS UNTIL MID MORNING. WE SHOULD THEN BE DRY UNTIL INSTABILITY SHOWERS MOVE IN FROM NORTHWEST IN THE LATE AFTERNOON...MAINLY IN THE NORTH HALF OF THE CWA...AND LINGER INTO THE EVENING. LOWER CHANCES OF SUCH SHOWERS FOR SOUTH CWA DURING THE EVENING. HIGH TEMPS TODAY TO BE KEPT COOL BY CLOUDS AGAIN...AND WILL GO COOLER THAN WED DUE TO THE FRONT DROPPING FARTHER SOUTH. WILL SPLIT THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FWC AND MAV TEMPS...LEANING TOWARDS THE MAV TEMPS AND GOING FCST. TONIGHT COLD AIR ADVECTION CONTINUES...AND GOING SLIGHTLY BELOW GUIDANCE AS IN CURRENT FCST SEEMS REASONABLE. FRIDAY...IN THE AFTERNOON A COLD POOL MOVES OVER NERN SECTIONS OF CWA...ALLOWING INSTABILITY SHRA TO DEVELOP. A FEW TSRA ALSO POSSIBLE WHERE LAPSE RATES ARE GREATEST. THESE SHOWERS SHOULD DRY UP PRETTY QUICKLY AS SUN BEGINS TO DROP...AND WILL LEAVE OUT OF EVENING HOURS FOR NOW. WILL STAY FAIRLY CLOSE TO MAV TEMPS OR SLIGHTLY COOLER DUE TO STRONG NORTHWEST FLOW. SATURDAY A FEW MORE INSTABILITY SHOWERS FOR THE FAR NORTHEAST... OTHERWISE DRY AND PARTLY CLOUDY. COOL TEMPS TO CONTINUE. NO CHANGES TO EXTENDED EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. .DVN... IA...FLOOD WATCH UNTIL MID MORNING ALONG AND SOUTH OF INTERSTATE 80. IL...FLOOD WATCH UNTIL MID MORNING ALONG AND SOUTH OF INTERSTATE 80. MO...FLOOD WATCH UNTIL MID MORNING. LRE
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE QUAD CITIES IA IL
1038 PM CDT WED JUN 12 2002
TIME(CDT) .....CITY LOCATION..... STATE ...EVENT/REMARKS...
....COUNTY LOCATION....
1035 PM BURLINGTON IA URBAN FLOODING
06/12/02 DES MOINES 1 - 2 FEET OF WATER
OVER SEVERAL ROADS.
VEHICLE STALLED IN
WATER ON HIGHWAY 61 IN
BURLINGTON. REPORTED BY
STORM SPOTTER.PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE QUAD CITIES IA IL
1044 PM CDT WED JUN 12 2002
TIME(CDT) .....CITY LOCATION..... STATE ...EVENT/REMARKS...
....COUNTY LOCATION....
1044 PM DENMARK IA FLOOD
06/12/02 LEE 2-3 INCHES OF RAIN IN
PAST HOUR. WATER OVER
ROADS, AND WIDESPREAD
LOWLAND FLOODING.
REPORTED BY STORM
SPOTTER.PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE QUAD CITIES IA IL
1132 PM CDT WED JUN 12 2002
TIME(CDT) .....CITY LOCATION..... STATE ...EVENT/REMARKS...
....COUNTY LOCATION....
1125 PM BIGGSVILLE IL FLOOD
06/12/02 HENDERSON PORTIONS OF HWY 34
UNDER WATER. ALSO
SECTIONS OF ROUTE 116
BETWEEN MEDIA AND
STRONGHURST HAS WATER
OVER ROAD. NUMEROUS
COUNTY ROADS AT LEAST 6
INCHES UNDER WATER.
REPORTED BY STORM
SPOTTER.PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE QUAD CITIES IA IL
1152 PM CDT WED JUN 12 2002
TIME(CDT) .....CITY LOCATION..... STATE ...EVENT/REMARKS...
....COUNTY LOCATION....
1145 PM SMITHSHIRE IL FLOOD
06/12/02 WARREN SPOTTERS HOUSE
SURROUNDED BY WATER.
SMITHSHIRE BLACKTOP
(COUNTY ROAD) UNDER
WATER. REPORTED BY
STORM SPOTTER.The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
4 flash flood. Local standard time, as filed.
Water up to 6 inches deep covered several city streets.
County road north of Chambersburg washed out.
A home was inundated with water.
County road north of St. Patrick impassable in spots due to flood water debris.
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, June 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: 5301738, 5301739, 5301740, 5301741.