Name: Hail in North Dakota, August 15, 2002
Start: 2002-08-15T17:40
End: 2002-08-15T17:40
Location: North Dakota

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

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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 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 Grand Forks, ND wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Aug 15, 1:15 PM CST, 4 hours 25 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Aug 15, 1:15 PM CST, 4 hours 25 minutes before

FORECAST DISCUSSION FOR EASTERN NORTH DAKOTA AND NORTHWEST MINNESOTA
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE EASTERN ND/GRAND FORKS ND
215 PM CDT THU AUG 15 2002

...MAIN FORECAST CHALLENGE FOCUSES ON LINGERING CONVECTIVE THREAT
THIS EVENING AND THEN NEXT IMPENDING POP/CONVECTIVE EVENT LATE
FRIDAY INTO EARLY SATURDAY...

.CURRENT OBSERVATIONAL OVERVIEW...
18Z MSAS ANALYSIS CONTINUED TO DEPICT LOW PRESSURE OVER ONTARIO
PROVINCE WITH ASSOCIATED COLD FRONT VICINITY OF EASTERN NEBRASKA
WESTERN IOWA BORDER. SECONDARY TROUGH EXTENDING FROM LOW WAS NOTED
FROM NEAR LAKE WINNIPEG TO SOUTHERN SASK PROVINCE. LATEST KMVX RADAR
AND SATELLITE IMAGERY SHOWED COLD POOL ALOFT GENERATED SCATTERED
SHOWER/EMBEDDED THUNDER PERSISTING GENERALLY NORTH OF HIGHWAY 2.
APPEARS MOST CONCENTRATED ACTIVITY IS FIRING JUST NORTH OF 500MB
SHEAR AXIS/AHEAD OF AFOREMENTIONED UPSTREAM SURFACE TROUGH WHERE
MOISTURE FLUX CONVERGENCE IS ENHANCED.

.FORECAST DETAILS...
EXPECT LINGERING COLD POOL ALOFT GENERATED CONVECTION TO BE ON THE
WANE THIS EVENING AS DAYTIME HEATING CEASES. TONIGHT INTO EARLY
FRIDAY WEAK SURFACE RIDGE AND ASSOCIATED SUBSIDENCE BUILDS OVER
REGION WITH CLEAR TO PARTLY CLOUDY SKY COVER. PROGRESSIVE LONGWAVE
PATTERN SHOULD HELP TO ADVECT NEXT UPSTREAM SHORTWAVE TROUGH INTO
REGION LATER FRIDAY AFTERNOON INTO SATURDAY MORNING. EXTRAPOLATION
OF FEATURE SUGGESTS HIGHEST POP THREAT SHOULD ACROSS NORTHERN ZONES
WHERE DEFORMATION ZONE TAKES SHAPE. BEST INSTABILITY PARAMETERS IN
CONJUNCTION WITH SYSTEM SHOULD BE ACROSS THE SOUTH WHERE ACTIVITY
WILL BE MORE SCATTERED IN NATURE AS GOOD DRY PUNCH ROTATES IN.
SATURDAY SHAPING UP AS A WINDY COOL AND UNSETTLED DAY AS FEATURE
BECOMES VERTICALLY STACKED ACROSS ONTARIO PROVINCE RESULTING IN
INCREASING CYCLONIC PRESSURE GRADIENT ACROSS REGION.

.EXTENDED...
LONGWAVE TROUGH TO REMAIN ACROSS CENTRAL CANADA AND THE NORTHERN
PLAINS THROUGH THE PERIOD HOWEVER PATTERN DEAMPLIFIES. SPLIT FLOW
DEVELOPS ACROSS THE REGION FOR THE EXTENDED.  ECMWF IS FASTER THAN
THE MRF EARLY IN THE PERIOD. THE ECMWF BECOMES SLOWER THAN THE MRF
LATE IN THE PERIOD. THE 120 HOUR AVN IS IN GOOD AGREEMENT WITH THE
OLD MRF. THE AVN/MRF OPERATIONAL RUNS ARE IN REASONABLE AGREEMENT
THROUGH DAY 5 WITH THE ENSEMBLE MEAN. AFTER DAY 5 OPERATIONAL RUNS
TREND FASTER THAN THE MEAN. WILL MOVE THE CHANCE OF PRECIPITATION
INTO TUESDAY.

FGF...NONE.

BERG/HOPPES

The radar

The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 hail. Local standard time, as filed.

Hail, Nelson

When: August 15, 5:40 PM CST
Where: Nelson County, 4 mi NE of Tolna
Measured: 0.75 in hail
Reported by: GENERAL PUBLIC
Coordinates: 47.867, -98.367

What these are

Hail: Hail three-quarters of an inch or larger, or smaller hail that caused damage, filed with the largest stone measured.

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

The same day elsewhere

More

Every storm in North Dakota in 2002 Every state in 2002 This day in weather history Warnings in North Dakota, 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: 5317450.