1 tornado, 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 Newport/Morehead City, NC wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Aug 26, 2:52 AM EST, 5 hours 13 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEWPORT/MOREHEAD CITY NC 352 AM EDT MON AUG 26 2002 HIGH POPS FROM MODELS FOR TODAY SEEM TO BE ON TRACK PER BLOSSOMING OF SHOWERS/TSTMS PAST HOUR FROM S OF RDU TO OFFSHORE OF CAPE FEAR. THIS WILL BE BEGINNING OF A WET PERIOD FOR ERN NC NEXT 3-4 DAYS AS UPR LOW DEVELOPS OVER TN/KY TODAY...THEN SLOWLY RETROGRADES S-SW THRU MIDWEEK. MAIN MODEL DIFFERENCE IS SFC WAVE DEVELOPMENT ALONG FRONT WITH INITIAL SHRT WV TODAY OUT TO 60 HRS. PER NCEP DISCUSSION...AVN LOOKS TOO STRONG WITH THIS FEATURE BUT DO EXPECT MORE THAN ETA/NGM INDICATE..SO GOING WITH MODEL BLEND. GIVEN TAP OF GULFMEX AND ATLC MSTR AND INTERMITTENT SHRT WVS...POPS 50% OR BETTER LOOKS REASONABLE THRU WED. GOING WITH MOS BLEND WITH 100% TODAY...THEN LIKELY TONIGHT THRU TUE NIGHT...TAPERING TO 50 ON WED AS MAIN MSTR AXIS BEGINS TO SHIFT FARTHER INLAND. MOS BLEND ON TEMPS LOOKS REASONABLE AS WELL. NO CHANGE TO FRI-SUN PERIOD. MARINE: AVN OVERZEALOUS BUT IDEA OF SFC WAVE DVLPMT ALG BNDRY APPEARS FEASIBLE BASED ON RECENT SFC STREAMLINE ANALYSIS. THUS WILL TAYLOR WIND DIRECTION WITH AVN BUT SCALE BACK WIND SPEEDS TO SMALL CRAFT EXERCISE CAUTION FOR 20 KT LATER TODAY AS WARM FRONT WINDS UP AND CHURNS N. SUBSEQUENTLY WILL ALSO REDUCE SIG WAVE HEIGHTS FROM THE AVN-BASED WW3 BUT BELIEVE 4 TO 5 FOOTERS WILL MATERIALIZE ONCE BULK OF RAINSHIELD MOVES N AND WINDS HAVE A CHANCE TO REACH STEADY 20 KT INTO THIS EVE...ESPECIALLY ACRS THE SRN WATERS WHERE OCEAN STATE USUALLY QUIK TO RESPOND IN A GOOD PUNCH OF S WIND. WILL LIKELY BRING WINDS TO 20 KT FOR 1ST PERIOD HATTERAS SWD DUE TO FQT CONVECTIVE GUSTS EXPECTED IN THE WATERS. CLOUD TO H2O LIGHTNING WILL POSE A THREAT TO MARINERS TODAY. AS FOR XTND AVN APPEARS ON THE LEVEL IN BROAD SE FETCH. WILL KEEP SEAS AOA 4 FEET THROUGH THE PERIOD WITH NOTABLE FETCH AREA/DURATION. LONG PERIOD WAVE ENERGY STILL WORRISOME COMPONENT IN RIP ACCESSMT. WITH ONSHORE WINDS THROUGHOUT AND LATERAL CURRENT SET-UP N OF HATTERAS WILL OPT FOR INCREASED THREAT OF R-CURRENTS FOR TODAY WITH EMPHASIS ON THIS AFTN AS S WINDS KICK IN. .MHX...NONE JBM/COLBY
The Morehead City radar (KMHX), 139 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 13:03 UTC.
1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.
A weak short lived tornado moved onshore the Outer Banks near Avon causing roof and porch damage to several homes.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in North Carolina in 2002Every state in 2002This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for North Carolina, 2002Warnings in North Carolina, 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: 5314345.