15 hail, 4 thunderstorm wind, as filed by the National Weather Service.
Every event with a place to put it. 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 North Platte, NE wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Aug 20, 12:10 PM MST, 2 hours 45 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NORTH PLATTE NE 210 PM CDT TUE AUG 20 2002 SYNOPSIS...LATE MORNING SFC ANALYSIS HAS LOW PRESSURE CENTER OVER NORTHEAST WY WITH WARM FRONT STRETCHING SOUTHEAST BISECTING THE CWA. MOISTURE CONTINUES TO POOL NEAR THE WARM FRONT WITH TDS IN THE 60S OVER THE AREA. H5 RIDGE OVER MISSOURI WITH EMBEDDED S/WS ROTATING AROUND THE PERIFERY OF THE RIDGE. AT 18Z WATER VAPOR SHOWS THE MOST SIGNIFICANT OF THE S/WS CURRENTLY MOVING THRU WESTERN COLORADO. DISCUSSION...AFOREMENTIONED STRONG S/W OVER COLORADO WILL TRAVERSE THE AREA LATE THIS AFTERNOON INTO TONIGHT. WITH ATMOSPHERE FORECAST TO BECOME QUITE UNSTABLE WOULD EXPECT A FAIR AMOUNT OF CONVECTION TO FIRE UP THIS PM. QUESTION THEN REVOLVES AROUND HOW MUCH THIS CONVECTION CAN SURVIVE THE NIGHT. THINK THAT THIS EVENING WILL SEE SOME DECENT COVERAGE...BUT CHANCES WILL LIKELY DWINDLE OVERNIGHT AS THE BEST FORCING SHIFTS INTO SOUTH DAKOTA ON THE NOSE OF THE LLJ AND CLOSER TO THE WARM FRONT. WILL MONITOR RADAR AND MAKE LAST MINUTE DECISION ON POPS TONIGHT. TOMORROW BECOMES A REAL CHALLENGE WITH POPS AND TEMPS FOR THAT MATTER. MODELS OBVIOUSLY ARE NOT GOING TO HAVE ANY CLUE WHAT TONIGHTS CONVECTION WILL DO TO BOUNDARIES. EXPECTATION IS THAT THERE WILL BE LEFT OVER BOUNDARIES SOMEWHERE IN THE CWA AND WITH LEE TROUGH/DRY LINE SETTING UP LOOKS LIKE A FAIRLY DECENT SHOT AT CONVECTION TOMORROW. CAPES OF 3K+ WITH LITTLE IF ANY CINH BY AFTERNOON TOMORROW SO CONVECTION COULD FIRE UP JUST ABOUT ANYWHERE. WILL GENERALLY CARRY 30 POPS ACROSS THE BOARD TOMORROW. AGAIN WEDNESDAY NIGHT WILL BE HIGHLY DEPENDENT ON HOW THINGS PLAY OUT THE NEXT 24 HOURS. ETA/AVN BOTH DEVELOPING FAIRLY DECENT CONVECTIVE BULLSEYE IN/NEAR THE CWA. CONSIDERING WE ARE PROGGED TO BE ON THE NOSE OF 50KT LLJ WITH WARM FRONT NEAR KS/NE BOARDER THINK THAT SLIGHTLY HIGHER POPS ARE JUSTIFIABLY...WILL PROBABLY BREAK OUT THE 40 POP FOR 3RD PERIOD FRONT SHOULD MAKE SOME PROGRESS SOUTH INTO KANSAS THURS/THURS NIGHT. ETA FURTHER SOUTH WITH THE FRONT AND ASSOCIATED CONVECTION THINK THIS SEEMS FAIRLY REASONABLE. ALREADY HAVE A DRY FORECAST THURS AFTERNOON...WITH SFC BOUNDARY NEAR KS/NE BOARDER WILL GO AHEAD AND INTRODUCE LOW POPS SOUTH THURS AFTERNOON. THURSDAY NIGHT WITH POSSIBLE ELEVATED DEVELOPMENT WITH LLJ WILL GO AHEAD AND KEEP POPS AREA WIDE SINCE THEY ARE ALREADY THERE. WITH SFC HIGH FORECAST TO BUILD INTO THE AREA FRIDAY. WILL GO AHEAD AND PULL POPS OUT OF FRIDAY AND FRIDAY NIGHT. LOOKS LIKE THE CONVECTION WILL PROBABLY STAY NEAR THE FOOTHILLS AND DONT THINK THAT IT WILL MAKE IT INTO THE PANHANDLE COUNTIES. WITH NO REAL SUPPORT FROM A LLJ LEE SIDE CONVECTION SHOULDNT MAKE IT ONTO THE HIGH PLAINS FRIDAY NIGHT. EXTENDED...SIGNIFICANT MODEL DIFFERENCES AND VERY LITTLE IN THE WAY OF ANY HELP FROM THE ENSEMBLES SO NOT INCLINED TO MAKE MANY CHANGES MADE TO THE EXTENDED. THE SCENARIO FROM THE GLOBAL HAS UPPER TROUGH OVER THE INTERMOUNTAIN WEST...WHICH WOULD LEAD ME TO BELIEVE THAT THERE WILL BE SOME LEE TROUGHING SETTING UP NEXT WEEK. WITH SOUTHEASTERLY LOW LEVEL FLOW SHOULD SEE SOME MOISTURE RETURN TO THE HIGH PLAINS. WOULD EXPECT THERE TO BE SOME CONVECTION DURING THE AFTERNOON....HOWEVER NO CLUE ON WHICH DAY WILL PRESENT THE BEST CHANCE. TO AVOID PAINTING ENTIRE EXTENDED WITH SLIGHT CHANCE POPS WILL GO AHEAD AND SIT ON THE DRY FORECAST FOR NOW. HOWEVER FULLY EXCEPT THAT SOME LOW POPS WILL BE NEEDED EVENTUALLY IN THAT TIME FRAME...JUST NOT READY TO ADD THEM YET SOUTHEASTERLY LOW LEVEL FLOW WITH SOME HINT OF UPPER RIDGING NEARBY LEADS ME TO THINK THAT AT LEAST CLIMO WOULD BE THE WAY TO GO WITH TEMPS. SO HAVE GENTLY NUDGED TEMPS UPWARD A CATEGORY ACROSS THE BOARD. WILL CONTINUE WITH DRY FORECAST AND KEEP TEMPS NEAR TO SLIGHTLY ABOVE CLIMO. .LBF...NONE. IZZI/DP
NEZ004>010-022>029-035>038-056>059-069>071-094-202045- HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK FOR WESTERN AND NORTH CENTRAL NEBRASKA NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NORTH PLATTE NE 1056 AM CDT TUE AUG 20 2002 ...STORM SPOTTER ACTIVATION MAY BE NEEDED LATE THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT ACROSS PORTIONS OF WESTERN AND NORTH CENTRAL NEBRASKA... THERE IS THE THREAT OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS LATE THIS AFTERNOON INTO EARLY TONIGHT ACROSS PORTIONS OF WESTERN AND NORTH CENTRAL NEBRASKA. THE GREATEST THREAT OF SEVERE WEATHER WILL OCCUR FROM LATE THIS AFTERNOON THROUGH THIS EVENING NORTH OF A LINE EXTENDING FROM BROKEN BOW IN CUSTER COUNTY...TO OSHKOSH IN SHERIDAN COUNTY. OTHER THUNDERSTORMS WHICH ARE NOT EXPECTED TO REACH SEVERE LEVELS ARE POSSIBLE OVER THE REST OF THE OUTLOOK AREA. AN AREA OF LOW PRESSURE WILL PUSH OUT OF MONTANA AND INTO WESTERN SOUTH DAKOTA BY EARLY EVENING. IN RESPONSE TO THIS SYSTEM A WARM FRONT ACROSS KANSAS LAST NIGHT WILL LIFT RAPIDLY NORTH THROUGH NEBRASKA TODAY. SOUTHEAST WINDS JUST NORTH OF THIS WARM FRONT WILL ALLOW AMPLE MOISTURE TO MOVE INTO THE AREA. THIS MOISTURE ALONG WITH SUNSHINE DURING THE AFTERNOON WILL ALLOW THE ATMOSPHERE TO BECOME UNSTABLE BY AFTERNOON. THESE FEATURES ALONG WITH AN UPPER DISTURBANCE MOVING OUT OF THE CENTRAL ROCKIES WILL BRING SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS TO THE AREA THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING. WINDS ALOFT WILL BE STRONG ENOUGH TO ALLOW SOME OF THESE STORMS TO BECOME SEVERE WITH LARGE HAIL THE PRIMARY THREAT.
The North Platte radar (KLNX), 170 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 21:56 UTC.
15 hail, 4 thunderstorm wind. Local standard time, as filed.
Six inch diameter tree limbs were broken off.
Four inch diameter tree limbs were broken off.
Four inch diameter tree limbs were broken off.
Wind and hail of unknown size damaged siding on a house and stripped several acres of corn.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Nebraska in 2002Every state in 2002This day in weather historyWarnings in Nebraska, 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: 5313807, 5313808, 5313809, 5313810, 5313811, 5313812, 5313815, 5313813, 5313814, 5313818, 5313816, 5313817, 5313820, 5313819, 5313821, 5313822, 5313904, 5313902, 5313903.