Damaging Wind in North Carolina, August 22, 2002

Name: Damaging Wind in North Carolina, August 22, 2002
Start: 2002-08-22T17:45
End: 2002-08-22T17:45
Location: North Carolina

August 22, 2002 · NWS RNK · 1 event in 1 county or zone

Thunderstorm winds on the afternoon of the 22nd downed a large tree 2 miles northeast of Reidsville.

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.

Tornadoes
Tropical storms and surge
Floods
Wind
Hail
Winter weather
Heat and drought
Cold
Fire, smoke and dust
Marine and coastal
Other

Open the live radar over this ground

The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: None recorded
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 1

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.

What happened

The episode as NWS RNK wrote it up.

Thunderstorm winds on the afternoon of the 22nd downed a large tree 2 miles northeast of Reidsville.

What forecasters said that day

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 Blacksburg, VA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Aug 22, 2:15 PM EST, 3 hours 30 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Aug 22, 2:15 PM EST, 3 hours 30 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BLACKSBURG, VA
315 PM EDT THU AUG 22 2002

850 THETA-E RIDGE OVER MTNS HIGHLIGHTED THE AFTERNOON CONVECTION
DISPLAYED ON THE LATEST KFCX 88D IMAGE. LAPS LI OF MINUS 1 TO MINUS
3 WERE NOTED IN THE WESTERN HALF OF FA. I DECIDED TO INCLUDE A
SLIGHT CHC OF SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS TONIGHT...MAINLY WEST OF THE
BLUE RIDGE MTNS. PCPN WILL HAVE HARD TIME SPREADING EAST OF MTNS.
UPPER RIDGE OVER REGION WILL SLOWLY SLIDE EAST DURING THE PERIOD.
AVN WAS MORE AMPLIFIED BY THE END OF PD WITH UPPER TROF AND IS
FARTHER SOUTH WITH COLD FRONT.  THE TREND IS TWDS A WEAKER TROF.
UKMET AND CANADIAN LOOKED MORE LIKE PREFERRED ETA. LEANING ZONES
TOWARDS THE ETA SOLUTION. IN THE EXTENDED PERIODS...ELECTED TO LOWER
MINS TEMPS SUNDAY AND MONDAY MORNINGS. THIS WILL BLEND BETTER WITH
RLX. REMOVED POPS ON MONDAY NIGHT. I ADDED DRY DAY 7 FOR THURSDAY.
BLENDED THE PACKAGE VIA FX/EASTERN CLUSTER GRID COORDINATION. ZONES
WILL BE OUT BY 400 PM. HAVE A GOOD NIGHT.

FCSTID =    7
PRELIM NUMBERS
ROA   72  94  70  89 /  10  10  10  30
LYH   71  95  69  90 /  10  10  10  30
DAN   73  96  70  91 /  10  10  10  30
BLF   67  85  65  81 /  20  20  30  40
LWB   64  84  63  81 /  20  20  30  40
BCB   68  90  66  85 /  20  20  20  40
TNB   65  87  63  83 /  20  20  20  40

.RNK...
NC...NONE.
VA...NONE.
WV...NONE.

The radar

The Roanoke radar (KFCX), 91 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 22:29 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 thunderstorm wind. Local standard time, as filed.

Thunderstorm Wind, Rockingham

When: August 22, 5:45 PM EST
Where: Rockingham County, 2 mi NE of Reidsville
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER
Coordinates: 36.383, -79.633

What these are

Thunderstorm Wind: Winds from a thunderstorm of 50 knots (58 mph) or more, or lower winds that caused damage or casualties. Measured gusts are marked MG, estimated EG.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in North Carolina in 2002 Every state in 2002 This day in weather history Warnings in North Carolina, August 2002

Sources

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: 5312981.