Showers and thunderstorm with very heavy rainfall moved through Grant County during the morning of the 27th. Widespread flooding was reported in and around Bayard.
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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.
Showers and thunderstorm with very heavy rainfall moved through Grant County during the morning of the 27th. Widespread flooding was reported in and around Bayard. Several basements were flooded. Al Brown Road was closed by high water. Buffalo Creek overflowed its banks in several places and rose high enough to touch the bottom of the Route 90 bridge. Rainfall totals included 3.02 inches in Bayard and 2.35 inches in Petersburg.
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 27, 2:45 AM EST, 4 hours 45 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BALTIMORE/WASHINGTON 345 AM EDT SUN JUL 27 2002 .SHORT TERM... HEAT WILL BE TH MAIN CONCERN IN THE SHORT TERM. GOOD RDGG BUILDING IN. H8 TEMPS RISE TO 20-22 C ABUNDANT LL MOISTURE AND LIGHT DOWNSLOPE WINDS WL HELP PUSH TEMPS IN THE MID 90S WITH DEWPTS IN THE LWR 70S EACH DAY. SO THE HEAT ADY/WARN STILL LOOKS GOOD. IN FACT WL PROBABLY HAVE TO EXTEND IT THROUGH TUESDAY (SEE BELOW). SOME AFTERNOON TSTM POSSIBLE BY LATER MONDAY AFTERNOON BUT WL BE MAINLY OVER OROGRAPHIC FAVORED AREAS. WILL KEEP LOW CHC IN THE WEST AND HIDDEN 20 IN THE EAST. ND .LONGER TERM...MON NIGHT THRU SAT UL RIDGE CONTINUES TO CONTROL WX OVER CWA MON NITE AND TUE. AS A RESULT...EXPECT ONE MORE WARM/MUGGY NIGHT AND HOT/HUMID DAY PRIOR TO COLD FROPA TUE NIGHT. WILL CONTINUE HEAT WARNING/ADV THRU TUE AFT. SCT TSRA POSSIBLE TUE AFT/EVE CWA WIDE DUE TO LEESIDE TROF CONVERGENCE AND WEAK PVA AHEAD OF COLD FRONT. HOWEVER...MOST ENERGY WILL ACCOMPANY FRONT PUSHING SE THRU CWA BETWEEN 03Z AND 12Z TUE NIGHT. MODELS SHOW SUFFICIENT MOISTURE...500 VORT...UL DIV...AND MID LVL TROF ACCOMPANYING BDRY. ONLY HINDERANCE TO LIKELY POPS IS THAT FRONT IS PASSING THRU AFT PEAK HEATING AND INSTABILITY...AND 850MB WINDS HAVE A WESTERLY /DRYING/ COMPONENT THEN. WED MORNING...BDRY SHUD BE OVER FAR S CWA AND DRIER AIR WILL BE APPROACHING N BORDER. BY 18Z WED...BDRY WILL BE JUST S OF CWA BUT STILL CLOSE ENOUGH TO WARRENT AFT POPS THERE DUE TO AMNT OF INSTABILITY AND VVEL MODELS FCST ALONG IT BY AFT. N CWA SHUD SEE SOME CLEARING BY THIS TIME AS DRIER AIR STARTS TO FILTER IN. BY WED NIGHT...FRONT WILL BE IN NC AND DRY AIR AND HIGH PRES WILL BE HERE. SFC HIGH WILL BE DIRECTLY OVHD BY FRI. SAT...ALL MID RANGE MODELS SHOW SIG LOW PASSING THRU GREAT LAKES. OLD MRF SHOWS COLD PENETRATING DOME OF HIGH PRES AND CROSSING CWA. ECMWF SAYS FRONT WILL FALL APART BEFORE IT REACHES HERE. DUE TO CLIMOTOLOGY...BELIEVE ECMWF SOLN MORE LIKELY. FRONTS HAVE A HARD TIME BREAKING THRU E COAST HIGHS THIS TIME OF YEAR. MMARGRAF .LWX... DC...EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING THRU TUE FOR ZONE DCZ001. MD...EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING THRU TUE FOR ZONE MDZ011. HEAT ADVISORY THRU TUE FOR ZONES MDZ002>007...MDZ009>010... MDZ013>014...MDZ016>018. VA...EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING THRU TUE FOR ZONE VAZ054. HEAT ADVISORY THRU TUE FOR ZONES VAZ025>031...VAZ036>042... VAZ050>053...VAZ055>057. WV...HEAT ADVISORY THRU TUE FOR ZONES WVZ048>053...WVZ055.
The Sterling radar (KLWX), 148 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 12:19 UTC.
1 flash flood. Local standard time, as filed.
Several roads, creeks, and basements were flooded.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in West Virginia in 2002Every state in 2002This day in weather historyWarnings in West 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: 5308587.