Veterans Day Weekend Outbreak
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The Veterans Day Weekend Tornado Outbreak was the massive, yet rare outbreak of storms that occurred from the late afternoon hours on November 9 through the early morning hours on Veterans Day, November 11, 2002. Seventy-six tornadoes hit 17 states. Twelve tornadoes killed 36 people in five states. This was the first major outbreak of the 21st century, and is the second biggest in November.
The midwest actually gets two tornado seasons, one in the spring and one in fall. During the fall season, the upper atmospheric dynamics are once again there for a major tornado outbreak. The upper atmospheric temperature starts to cool down for the winter and also because there are shorter days.
The outbreak actually 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, 12 in Alabama, 5 in Ohio, and 1 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 Palm Sunday Tornado Outbreak. That tornado was an F4. 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. This tornado was also F4. This was the farthest north and east a tornado has occurred this late in the year.
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 a few of the tornadoes occurred in severe thunderstorm watch boxes.
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.