1 lightning, as filed by the National Weather Service.
Every event with a place to put it; 1 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. 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 Sioux Falls, SD wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Sep 19, 2:18 AM CST, 2 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SIOUX FALLS SD 318 AM THU SEP 19 2002 ...MAIN FORECAST CONCERNS ARE WITH CLDS/TMPS IN SHORT TERM AND THEN PRECIP... SYNOPSIS...00Z UPPER AIR ANALYSIS INDICTED A VERY ENERGETIC AND HIGHLY AMPLIFIED FLOW PATTERN ACROSS THE LOWER 48. AT H3 A 110 KNT JET CONTINUED TO DIG INTO THE BACK SIDE OF THE TROUGH ACROSS THE CNTRL ROCKIES. SEVERAL SHORT WAVES HAD EJECTED OUT OF THE MEAN TROUGH...AND WERE MOVING TO THE NORTHEAST INTO THE MEAN RIDGE CENTERED FROM THE LOWER MS RIVER VALLEY NORTH INTO THE GREAT LAKES. THE 06Z OBJECTIVE MSAS ANALYSIS INDICATED LO PRES OVR W-CNTRL MN. THE CDFNT WAS LOCATED FROM ERN SD INTO NRN NEB WITH 2-3 MB PRES RISES NOTED BEHIND FRNT. FORECAST...CDFNT WL CONT TO PUSH SE ACROSS THE CWA THIS MORNING. CLDS CONT TO FILL IN QUICKLY BEHIND THE FRONT. SINCE THE STREAMLINES ARE NEARLY PARALLEL ALONG PRES SFCS IN THE 295-300 K LAYER...INDICATING WEAK DOWNGLIDE...AND COND PRES DEF ARE LESS THAN 10 MB...CLDS SHOULD BE TUFF TO GET RID OF IN THE CNTRL AND SRN FA AS WEAK OMEGA FROM RISING THETA SFCS OVERCOMES WEAK DOWNGLIDE. SOME SUN POSSIBLE BY AFTERNOON OVER WRN/NW CWA AS LO LVLS BEGIN TO DRY IN SUBSIDENCE...AND WL TAPER HIGH TMPS TO FIT THIS THINKING. MODEL DIFFERENCES COME INTO PLAY TONIGHT WITH THE EVOLUTION OF THE LARGE SCALE TROUGH OVER THE CNTRL/SRN ROCKIES. ETA WANTS TO BRING CLOSED MID LVL CYCLONE NE THROUGH ERN KS INTO CNTRL IA WHILE THE AVN LIFTS AN OPEN WAVE NE ACROSS THE SAME AREA. WL FAVOR THE ETA PER HPC DISCUSSION WITH THE AVN SUFFERING FROM SOME CONVECTIVE FEEDBACK...BUT ETA STRENGTH OF CLOSED CYCLONE MAT BE OVERDONE. THUS CLDS WL INCREASE FROM S AFTER MIDNIGHT TONIGHT. WL ALSO BRING IN A CHC FOR -RW LATE TONIGHT WHERE Q-VECTORS WOULD INDICATE DEEP LAYER CONVERGENCE. SHARP EDGE TO NRN EXTEND OF PRECIP AND WL KEEP IT OUT OF SD. THIS PRECIP THEN LIFTS TO THE NE FRIDAY MORNING AS WAVE OPENS UP AND EJECTS NE AS NRN STREAM WAVE IN SRN CANADA TAKES OVER. CDFNT THEN TO PUSH THRU THE AREA FRIDAY NIGHT INTO SATURDAY MORNING. ATMOSPHERE AHEAD OF THIS FRONT IS VERY DRY...AND ALTHOUGH MDLS INDICATE GOOD FRONTOGENESIS...SHOULD ONLY BE GOOD ENOUGH FOR SOME MID LEVEL CLDS. THUS WL PULL PRECIP OUT OF THE FORECAST. GOOD CAA AND NDVA SHOULD LEAD TO GOOD CLEARING FOR MOST OF THE CWA ON SATURDAY WITH A BREEZY DAY IN STORE. EXTENDED...LATEST AVN WOULD INDICATE A LESS OF A COOL DOWN/HUGE TROUGH NEXT WEEK THAN INDICATED IN EARLIER RUNS OF THE MODEL. THIS SEEMS REASONABLE GIVEN THE TIME OF YEAR AND CLIMO. GOING FORECAST HAS THIS PRETTY MUCH IN HAND AND WL MAKE NO CHANGES. .FSD...NONE BOUSTEAD
The Sioux Falls radar (KFSD), 11 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 08:20 UTC.
1 lightning. Local standard time, as filed.
Lightning struck a house, causing an attic fire.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in South Dakota in 2002Every state in 2002This day in weather historyWarnings in South Dakota, September 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: 5320715.