An early morning thunderstorm produced a lightning bolt which struck a home in Chantilly around 12:50 AM EDT on the 17th. A Tulip Tree Court home sustained $100,000 damage from a fire which was caused by lightning.
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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 episode as NWS LWX wrote it up.
An early morning thunderstorm produced a lightning bolt which struck a home in Chantilly around 12:50 AM EDT on the 17th. A Tulip Tree Court home sustained $100,000 damage from a fire which was caused by lightning. Electrical wiring, the second story ceiling, and the roof of the home were damaged.
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 Baltimore/Washington wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jul 16, 7:15 PM EST, 4 hours 35 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BALTIMORE/WASHINGTON 815 PM EDT TUE JUL 16 2002 JUST SOME THIN CI SPILLING INTO THE AREA OVRNGT SO M/CLR FCST LOOKS GOOD. MIN TEMP FCST ALSO IN GOOD SHAPE. NO UPDATE TO ZNS NEEDED. WALSTON PREVIOUS AFD BELOW... --------------------------------------------------------------- TONIGHT THRU WED NIGHT...LOW PRES OFF THE NE COAST AND HIGH PRES MOVNG IN FROM THE WEST WILL KEEP NW WINDS UP 10 TO 15 KT LATE THIS AFTRN AND EVE...THEN MOVNG TO N AND DECREASING LATE. NOT MUCH TO SAY ABOUT TNT EXCPT IT WIL BE CLR AND WARM. WED WILL BE GOOD FOR A HT ADVSRY WITH HIGHS IN THE MID 90S AND DWPTS IN THE MID TO UPPR 60S. MSUNNY SKIES WITH ONLY SCT OR FEW CU. CLDS WILL BEGIN TO MOVE IN OVRNGHT WED NIGHT AS VORT CNTR HEADS OUR WAY FROM THE WSW. AVN HAS THIS FEATURE THE STRONGEST. WILL USE A 20 POP FOR WED NIGHT IN CASE ANY SHRA DVLP LATE WED NIGT. WILL BE A WARM MUGGY NIGHT. BATTLE WILL ENSUE OVER THE REGION BETWEEN WARM AIR TO THE SW AND COOLER AIR TO THE NE OVR THE NEXT SVRL DAYS WITH A RIDGE OVER THE GULF COAST STATES AND A TROF OVER NEW ENGLD. STRONG LONG TERM THU THRU WED...PERSISTENT PATN TO CONTINUE THROUGH MUCH OF THE EXTENDED. CDFNT WL PUSH THROUGH THE AREA ON THU NGT...AND STALL S OF THE AREA FRI/SAT. SOME UNCERTAINTY DEVELOPS AS TO IF AND HOW QUICKLY FRONTOLYSIS WL OCCUR BY THE END OF THE PD...BUT SOME INDICATIONS ARE THAT THE CDFNT WL BEGIN TO SLOWLY RETREAT NWD AS A WMFNT EARLY IN THE WK. EITHER WAY...PLAN ON KEEPING SHRA/TSRA CHCS FOR THE ENTIRE XTND. EASTERLY FLOW WL DEVELOP BEHIND THE CDFNT...AND NUMEROUS UPR SHORTWVS EJECT OUT OF THE PERSISTENT UPR LOW OVER THE LWR MS VLY. WITH THE CHC FOR PCPN AND MORE EXTENSIVE CLD CVR...TEMPS WL BE KEPT IN CHECK DESPITE ABUNDANT LLVL MOISTURE. DRIER WX LOOKS TO FINALLY RETURN BY THE MIDDLE TO LATE PART OF NEXT WK. MANNING .LWX... DC...HEAT ADVISORY WEDNESDAY DCZ001. MD...HEAT ADVISORY WEDNESDAY MDZ003>007...MDZ009>011... MDZ013>014...MDZ016>018. VA...HEAT ADVISORY WEDNESDAY VAZ025>031...VAZ036>042...VAZ050>057. WV...HEAT ADVISORY WEDNESDAY WVZ050>053...WVZ055.
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 lightning. Local standard time, as filed.
A lightning fire severely damaged the attic and roof of a home.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Virginia in 2002Every state in 2002This day in weather historyWarnings in Virginia, July 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: 5308224.