1 thunderstorm wind, as filed by the National Weather Service.
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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 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 Birmingham, AL wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Dec 17, 2:47 PM CST, 7 hours 8 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BIRMINGHAM, AL 247 PM CST MON DEC 17 2001 VIGOROUS...PROGRESSIVE SHORTWAVE CURRENTLY CROSSING THE MS RVR...AND SHOULD BE E OF THE FA BY DAYBRK TUE...REPLACED BY DRY NWLY UPR FLO PATTERN WHICH SHOULD PERSIST THRU THE RMDR OF THE WEEK. BROAD PCPN AXIS SLOLY WORKING EWD ACRS THE ERN COUNTIES OF AL...AND SHOULD BE CLEAR OF THE FA BY MID EVE. WILL HOLD ONTO HIGH POPS IN THE EXTRM ERN ZONES WHERE PCPN IS ONGOING...AND PERHAPS CHC CAT AT MGM...OTHERWISE SHOULD BE ABLE TO DROP POPS FOR THE HSV/BHM AREAS AND POINTS WEST. MAY SEE SOME PARTIAL BREAKS IN THE W OVERNIGHT...BUT GIVEN AMOUNT OF RECENT RAINFALL SOME PATCHY DENSE FOG MAY DVLP IN AREAS WHERE CLEARING DOES OCCUR TNGT. MOST AREAS SHOULD CLEAR IN EARNEST TUE AS RIDGING COMMENCES AND LOLVL THERMAL TROF SLIDES E OF FA. ETA/AVN BOTH DEPICTING ANOTHER FAST MOVING SHORTWAVE AND ASSOCIATED REINFORCING COLD FRONT TRAVERSING AL WED NGT...BUT MAIN EFFECT OF THIS SYSTEM SHOULD BE A BRIEF PERIOD OF INCRSD MID/HI LVL CLDSS. TEMPS ALSO RETURNING TO COOLER...MORE SEASONABLE VALUES THRU MOST OF THE WEEK AS POST-FRONTAL THICKNESSES DECREASE. PCPN CHANCES RE-ENTER THE PICTURE LATE NXT WEEKEND AS AN AMPLIFIED LONGWAVE TROUGH DVLPS OVER THE PLAINS/MS VLY REGION. STILL WAY...WAY OUT...BUT THE XMAS EVE/XMAS TIME FRAME IS STARTING TO LOOK INTERESTING (PER THE MRF). FCSTID = 66 HSV 43 56 33 55 / 10 0 0 0 BHM 45 58 34 56 / 10 0 0 0 MGM 50 62 34 59 / 40 0 0 0 .BMX... AL...NONE.
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 thunderstorm wind. Local standard time, as filed.
Trees and power lines were blown down just west of Lake Tuscaloosa. A trailer was blown off its foundation, a roof was partially torn off a house, and some shingles were removed from a church roof. All the damage was located just off SR 69.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Alabama in 2001Every state in 2001This day in weather historyWarnings in Alabama, December 2001
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: 5274313.