Outbreak Synopsis
The outbreak began in Arkansas in the late afternoon hours on Saturday, November 9, 2002. However, the brunt of the outbreak was on November 10. It began around 2 P.M. in Indiana and became widespread from Mississippi up through Ohio in the afternoon. Seventeen died in Tennessee, twelve in Alabama, five in Ohio, and one each in Pennsylvania and Mississippi.
The most notable and photogenic tornado of the outbreak was the one that occurred at Van Wert, Ohio. Van Wert has been hit before. The last time they were hit was during the 1965 Palm Sunday tornado outbreak. That tornado was an F4. During this outbreak, a theater was destroyed at around 3:30 P.M. The walls and roof were damaged or destroyed by the tornado and three cars were thrown into the front seats which minutes earlier had been completely filled with people. This was the farthest north and east such an intense tornado has occurred that late in the year. Notably, no one was killed at the packed theater because the manager received warning via Van Wert County Emergency Director Rick McCoy and evacuated everyone to safer shelter.
The lead time of this tornado was approximately 28 minutes. A tornado warning went out for Van Wert County at 3:02 P.M. This tornado outbreak was particularly noted because of the massive lead times on all the tornadoes, but there was a slight dispute because the northern tornadoes (such as Van Wert) occurred in severe thunderstorm watch boxes.
This outbreak was exceptional because of its extremely long duration, extremely large area affected, and very large number of tornadoes and intense tornadoes. It is among the most productive tornado events in recorded history.
The 2002 tornado season in perspective was extremely slow, the slowest the U.S. has seen since 1988. The year was due to have only one-quarter of the national average this year, but due to the sudden burst of tornado activity between November 5 and December 18, 2002 had one of the most active fall seasons in U.S. history.
Read more about this topic: 2002 Veterans Day Weekend Tornado Outbreak