The 2002 Veterans Day weekend tornado outbreak was an unusually severe and expansive severe weather event across portions of the Central and

Eastern United States The Eastern United States, commonly referred to as the American East, Eastern America, or simply the East, is the region of the United States to the east of the Mississippi River. In some cases the term may refer to a smaller area or the East C ...

from the evening hours of November 9 into the early morning hours of

Veterans Day Veterans Day (originally known as Armistice Day) is a federal holiday in the United States observed annually on November 11, for honoring military veterans of the United States Armed Forces (who were discharged under conditions other than d ...

, November 11, 2002. A series of troughs tracked eastward across the United States, providing strong

wind shear Wind shear (or windshear), sometimes referred to as wind gradient, is a difference in wind speed and/or direction over a relatively short distance in the atmosphere. Atmospheric wind shear is normally described as either vertical or horizont ...

, while anomalously warm and unstable air surged northward into the

Ohio River Valley The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illinoi ...

. As a result, multiple tornadoes occurred across Arkansas, Tennessee, and Missouri on November 9. A far more widespread and severe event occurred the following day, with three distinct

tornado outbreak __NOTOC__ A tornado outbreak is the occurrence of multiple tornadoes spawned by the same synoptic scale weather system. The number of tornadoes required to qualify as an outbreak typically are at least six to ten, with at least two rotational l ...

s focused across areas from Illinois to Pennsylvania; Tennessee and Kentucky; and areas from Mississippi to South Carolina. The most intense tornado of the outbreak was a violent F4 tornado that occurred near

Van Wert, Ohio Van Wert is a city in and the county seat of Van Wert County, Ohio, United States. The municipality is located in northwestern Ohio approximately 77 mi (123 km) SW of Toledo and 34 mi (54 km) SE of Fort Wayne, Indiana. The po ...

. A total of 76 tornadoes occurred during the 3-day period, collectively resulting in 36 deaths and 303 injuries. As of 2022, the event ranks as the third-largest tornado outbreak on record in November.

Meteorological synopsis

November 9

The first signs for organized severe weather became apparent on November 7, when the

Storm Prediction Center The Storm Prediction Center (SPC) is a US government agency that is part of the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), operating under the control of the National Weather Service (NWS), which in turn is part of the National Oceani ...

(SPC) outlined a Slight risk across portions of the mid-

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

and western Ohio River valleys valid for November 9. On that day, a powerful and negatively-tilted upper-level trough upwards of was observed driving east-southeastward toward the U.S. Central and

Southern Plains The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, and ...

. While a shortwave trough at the leading edge of this feature progressed across the Texas Panhandle, a surface

area of low pressure In meteorology, a low-pressure area, low area or low is a region where the atmospheric pressure is lower than that of surrounding locations. Low-pressure areas are commonly associated with inclement weather (such as cloudy, windy, with possible ...

resided across the Central and

Northern Plains The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, and ...

. Southerly flow associated with the cyclone prompted the northward advection of moisture from the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United ...

, with

dewpoint The dew point is the temperature to which air must be cooled to become saturated with water vapor, assuming constant air pressure and water content. When cooled below the dew point, moisture capacity is reduced and airborne water vapor will co ...

s rising into the lower 60s °F as far north as southern Illinois; this moisture promoted modest destabilization and mid-level

convective available potential energy In meteorology, convective available potential energy (commonly abbreviated as CAPE), is the integrated amount of work that the upward (positive) buoyancy force would perform on a given mass of air (called an air parcel) if it rose vertically thro ...

(CAPE) values from 500–1,000 J/kg. As the

shortwave trough A shortwave or shortwave trough is an embedded kink in the trough / ridge pattern. Its length scale is much smaller than that of and is embedded within longwaves, which are responsible for the largest scale (synoptic scale) weather systems. Sho ...

continued eastward, it aided in the formation of thunderstorms across northeastern Arkansas around 00:00 UTC. These storms resided in a strongly sheared environment, with storm relative helicity – a measure of the potential for cyclonic updrafts – around 800 m2/s2. Despite initial concern that the lower levels of the atmosphere were not quite as favorable, evening

atmospheric sounding Atmospheric sounding or atmospheric profiling is a measurement of vertical distribution of physical properties of the atmospheric column such as pressure, temperature, wind speed and wind direction (thus deriving wind shear), liquid water content, ...

s from Little Rock, Arkansas, and Memphis, Tennessee, showcased an extremely favorable environment for significant tornadoes. Clusters of

supercell A supercell is a thunderstorm characterized by the presence of a mesocyclone: a deep, persistently rotating updraft. Due to this, these storms are sometimes referred to as rotating thunderstorms. Of the four classifications of thunderstorms ( ...

s tracked from Arkansas into Tennessee over ensuing hours, and in fact, the persistence of these storms resulted in the formation of a weak

outflow boundary An outflow boundary, also known as a gust front, is a storm-scale or mesoscale boundary separating thunderstorm-cooled air ( outflow) from the surrounding air; similar in effect to a cold front, with passage marked by a wind shift and usually ...

that further enhanced the tornado threat. A total of 10 tornadoes occurred throughout the evening of November 9, including multiple strong tornadoes and one that killed two people near

Huntingdon, Tennessee Huntingdon is a town in Carroll County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 4,439 at the 2020 census and 3,985 in 2010. It is the county seat of Carroll County. History European-American settlers named Huntingdon for Memucan Hunt, who f ...

November 10–11

On November 10, the SPC warned of the potential for a significant tornado outbreak and/or widespread damaging wind episode across northeastern Mississippi, much of Tennessee, northwestern Alabama, and much of Kentucky, where the organization issued a High risk of severe weather. Morning upper-air analyses showed mid- to upper-level winds of across the southern

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico ...

, as well as an embedded shortwave trough moving east toward the Mississippi and Ohio River valleys. At the surface, a strong area of low pressure was positioned over Wisconsin and moving northeastward toward Ontario. Throughout the afternoon hours, the tornado outbreak unfolded in three distinct locations. To the north across Indiana and Ohio, temperatures rose into the lower 70s and dewpoints climbed into the mid-60s °F, supporting CAPE values of 1,000–2,000 J/kg. In addition, significant pressure falls in the region contributed to backed surface winds, aiding in favorable low-level shear profiles. Although storms in this region were initially congealed into a squall line ahead of a

cold front A cold front is the leading edge of a cooler mass of air at ground level that replaces a warmer mass of air and lies within a pronounced surface trough of low pressure. It often forms behind an extratropical cyclone (to the west in the Northern ...

, the presence of strong shear and dry air in the mid-levels supported the line's breakdown into supercells and bowing segments. Ahead of this activity, additional discrete supercells overspread much of Ohio owing to a prefrontal trough. A long-tracked, violent F4 tornado began in Van Wert and tracked for over , killing 4 people and injuring 17 others. An F3 tornado near

Tiffin Tiffin is an Indian English word for a type of meal. It refers to a light breakfast or a light tea-time meal at about 3 p.m., consisting of typical tea-time foods. In certain parts of India, it can also refer to the midday luncheon or, in s ...

killed one person and injured two others. An F2 tornado in Clark, Pennsylvania, killed 1 person. Numerous other tornadoes were recorded throughout the afternoon. The event evolved into more of a significant damaging wind episode as storms progressed farther east into Pennsylvania by the evening hours. With the northern outbreak unfolding, a central outbreak simultaneously overspread portions of Tennessee and Kentucky, while a southern outbreak spanned areas from Mississippi into South Carolina. Surface observations and atmospheric soundings across the High and Moderate risk areas showed a very unstable environment with surface-based CAPE values in the 2,000–3,000 J/kg range. Despite the presence of a

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. Caps typically have a visor, or no brim at all. They are popular in casual and informal se ...

, this inversion was weak and expected to be eroded by warming daytime temperatures. Meanwhile, deep-layer wind shear of overspread the area. Though shear profiles were largely unidirectional initially, low-level winds were expected to become more conducive for discrete supercells and tornadoes. As expected, temperatures climbing to around and dewpoints reaching the mid-60s °F allowed for deep convective development into the afternoon. Multiple swaths of supercells developed throughout the region, including one in middle Tennessee, a second from central Mississippi into northwestern Alabama, and a third from northeastern Louisiana into central Mississippi. Fatal tornadoes occurred near Shelbyville, Joyner, and Crossville in Tennessee; Carbon Hill,

Saragossa Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributar ...

, and

Centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics * Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentri ...

in Alabama; and

Crawford Crawford may refer to: Places Canada * Crawford Bay Airport, British Columbia * Crawford Lake Conservation Area, Ontario United Kingdom * Crawford, Lancashire, a small village near Rainford, Merseyside, England * Crawford, South Lanarkshire, a ...

in Mississippi. Numerous other tornadoes were documented throughout the area. Much like the outbreak farther north, the event transitioned into more of a damaging wind event by the evening hours, though a few tornadoes still occurred during the early morning hours across Georgia and South Carolina.

Confirmed tornadoes

November 9 event

November 10 event

November 11 event

Gallery

FEMA - 7200 - Photograph by Jason Pack taken on 11-12-2002 in Tennessee.jpg , Mossy Grove, TN on November 12, 2002 FEMA - 7162 - Photograph by Lara Shane taken on 11-14-2002 in Alabama.jpg , Carbon Hill, AL on November 14, 2002 FEMA - 7169 - Photograph by Lara Shane taken on 11-14-2002 in Mississippi.jpg ,

Mississippi University for Women Mississippi University for Women (MUW or "The W") is a coeducational public university in Columbus, Mississippi. It was formerly named the Industrial Institute and College for the Education of White Girls and later the Mississippi State College ...

campus, Columbus, MS on November 14, 2002 FEMA - 7305 - Photograph by Liz Roll taken on 11-16-2002 in Tennessee.jpg , Burlison, TN on November 16, 2002 FEMA - 7202 - Photograph by Liz Roll taken on 11-13-2002 in Tennessee.jpg , Cumberland County, TN on November 13, 2002

Notes

References

External links

Veterans Day Tornado Outbreak
(NWS Birmingham, Alabama)
November 10, 2002
(NWS Huntsville, Alabama)
Severe Weather Event - November 10-11, 2002
(NWS Jackson, Mississippi)
Tornadoes in Middle Tennessee on November 10, 2002
(NWS Nashville, Tennessee)
Tornadoes devastate parts of northwest Ohio and northeast Indiana
(NWS Northern Indiana)

(

Midwestern Regional Climate Center The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. I ...

)
NWS Service Assessment

(22nd Conference on Severe Local Storms,

American Meteorological Society The American Meteorological Society (AMS) is the premier scientific and professional organization in the United States promoting and disseminating information about the atmospheric, oceanic, and hydrologic sciences. Its mission is to advance th ...

)
Video of the Van Wert, Ohio F4 tornado, from the Ohio State Highway Patrol
{{DEFAULTSORT:2002-11-09 Veterans Day Weekend Tornado Outbreak F4 tornadoes by date Tornadoes of 2002 Tornadoes in Alabama Tornadoes in Indiana Tornadoes in Mississippi Tornadoes in Ohio Tornadoes in Pennsylvania Tornadoes in Tennessee Veterans Day Weekend Tornado Outbreak Tornado outbreak 2002-11-09