Name: Hail in Oregon, August 20, 2002
Start: 2002-08-20T13:00
End: 2002-08-20T13:00
Location: Oregon

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 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 Pendleton, OR wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Aug 20, 7:30 AM PST, 5 hours 30 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Aug 20, 7:30 AM PST, 5 hours 30 minutes before

NORTHEAST OREGON/SOUTHEAST WASHINGTON FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PENDLETON OR
830 AM PDT TUE AUG 20 2002

FIRE WEATHER...THE MAIN FIRE WEATHER CONCERN TODAY WILL BE ISOLATED
AFTERNOON THUNDERSTORMS OVER THE CENTRAL AND EASTERN MOUNTAINS.
INITIALLY THESE STORMS WILL START OUT DRY BUT WILL LATER BECOME WET
AS THE MOISTURE WORKS ITS WAY DOWN TO THE SURFACE. ALSO...BREEZY TO
WINDY CONDITIONS WILL REDEVELOP IN THE COLUMBIA RIVER GORGE AND
KITTITAS VALLEY TODAY.

TODAY...A MODERATELY STRONG MIDDLE AND UPPER LEVEL DISTURBANCE WILL
CONTINUE TO MOVE INTO THE NORTHWEST AND WILL DESTABILIZE THE
ATMOSPHERE. IN ADDITION...SIGNIFICANT MOISTURE AVAILABILITY AND COLD
AIR ALOFT WILL ENHANCE THE DEVELOPING INSTABILITY. THIS WILL LEAD TO
ISOLATED THUNDERSTORM ACTIVITY OVER THE CENTRAL AND EASTERN
MOUNTAINS THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING. IN THE WAKE OF THE MARINE PUSH
THAT MOVED THROUGH THE AREA LAST NIGHT...TEMPERATURES TODAY WILL BE
COOLER THAN YESTERDAYS TEMPERATURES. PRESSURE GRADIENTS WILL REMAIN
RELATIVELY TIGHT ALONG THE EAST SLOPES OF THE CASCADES...SO THE
BREEZY TO WINDY CONDITIONS WILL PERSIST. HENRY

PDT 222  ALW 222  PSC 000  YKM 000

KPDT...VCP32/CLEAR AIR MODE...OPERATIONAL.

.KPDT...NONE.

In the hours before

Special weather statement, Aug 20, 7:30 AM PST, 5 hours 30 minutes before

ORZ048-050-211600-

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PENDLETON OR
830 AM PDT TUE AUG 20 2002

...COLD TEMPERATURES AND LOW SNOW LEVELS EXPECTED IN THE HIGH
ELEVATIONS IN THE WALLOWA AND OCHOCO MOUNTAINS WEDENESDAY...

AN APPROACHING WEATHER SYSTEM WILL BRING COLD TEMPERATURES TO THE
HIGHER ELEVATIONS OF THE WALLOWA AND OCHOCO MOUNTAINS WEDNESDAY AND
WEDNESDAY NIGHT. SNOW LEVELS ARE EXPECTED TO DROP TO 7500 FEET BY
WEDNESDAY MORNING AND SLOWLY RISE TO 8500 FEET BY WEDNESDAY NIGHT.
SNOW LEVELS WILL INCREASE TO 10000 FEET BY THURSDAY MORNING AS THE
SYSTEM MOVES TO THE SOUTHWEST. NO SIGNIFICANT ACCUMULATIONS ARE
EXPECTED.

BH

The radar

The Pendleton radar (KPDT), 125 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 21:00 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 hail. Local standard time, as filed.

Hail, Wallowa

When: August 20, 1:00 PM PST
Where: Wallowa County, Enterprise
Measured: 0.75 in hail
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER
Coordinates: 45.433, -117.283

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 Oregon in 2002 Every state in 2002 This day in weather history Warnings in Oregon, 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: 5316826.