Heat Wave Expands to the East Coast; Flash Flooding Likely in the Central Plains into the Midwest; Severe Thunderstorms in the Northeast

Dangerous, prolonged heat is ongoing in the Mid-South to Mid-Mississippi Valley and heat expands into the Northeast for a brief period today. Widely scattered instances of flash flooding due to heavy rains are forecast from northeast Kansas to much of Indiana. Scattered strong to severe thunderstorms are possible across parts of New England, northern Mid-Atlantic, and North Dakota. Read More >

Shortly after 6 p.m. on 21 August 2002, an F1 tornado touched down in Muscatine County just north of Muscatine on Hwy 38. The tornado had about a 1.6 mile path destroying two sheds and causing roof damage to another shed and a farm house, in addition to scattered tree damage. The synoptic and mesoscale environment that day supported severe weather mainly in the mode of straight-line winds. A non-supercell tornado developed in a non-descending mode as a cell interacted with a convective boundary. The use of high resolution 8-bit velocity data was key to the decision to warn and helped provide a 4 minute lead time before the tornado was reported by a nearby amateur radio operator. See especially the radar data at 2311Z and 2316Z.

STORMDATA