Connecticut, 2001

Tornado and Damaging Wind in Connecticut, July 1, 2001

July 1, 2001 · NWS ALY · 2 events in 1 county or zone

A powerful cold front, combined with a strong upper level disturbance to produce widespread thunderstorms across Litchfield County during the afternoon of July 1. One of the storms spawned a gale (F0) Tornado, with estimated winds between 40 and 74 mph, the third to touch down in Litchfield County in less than 10 days!

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.

  • Tornadoes
  • Tropical storms and surge
  • Floods
  • Wind
  • Hail
  • Winter weather
  • Heat and drought
  • Cold
  • Fire, smoke and dust
  • Marine and coastal
  • Other

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The toll

Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$90,000
Crop damage
None recorded
Events
2

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.

What happened

The episode as NWS ALY wrote it up.

A powerful cold front, combined with a strong upper level disturbance to produce widespread thunderstorms across Litchfield County during the afternoon of July 1. One of the storms spawned a gale (F0) Tornado, with estimated winds between 40 and 74 mph, the third to touch down in Litchfield County in less than 10 days! A discontinous path of 10 miles began along Route 37, near the Sherman/New Milford border, and headed east to Painter Hill, in Roxbury. There were seven distinct brief touchdowns. The damage was mainly snapped trees and limbs, with one tree as thick as 14 inch inch in diameter snapped 20 feet off the ground. There were no injuries or fatalities reported to the National Weather Service with this tornado. Thunderstorm winds also knocked down trees in the town of Harwinton.

What forecasters said that day

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 Albany, NY wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jul 1, 2:25 PM EST, 1 hour earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jul 1, 2:25 PM EST, 1 hour before
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ALBANY NY
325 PM EDT SUN JUL 1 2001

CDFNT KOGS-KFIG-KDAY AT 18Z WITH MULTIPLE LNS OF TSTMS ON KENX
RADAR. SFC PRES GRAD TIGHTEST ABT 150 MI BEHIND FNT AND MODELS
INDICATE GOOD DVV...THAT GRAD WL ASSIST IN KEEPING BOTTOM FROM
DROPPING OUT TEMPWISE TNGT. CYTS REPORTED A RASN MIX BEHIND
POST-FNTL TROF WHILE HI PRES NR ND/MN BDR. PROGGED POSITION OF CDFNT
IN LN WITH RUNS OF YDA INTO KHPN BY 00Z THIS EVNG. MODEL CONSENSUS
DEPICTS HI PRES MOVG INTO SRN LK MI VCNTY AT 12Z MON...THENCE INTO
NE OH AND ERN VA AT 00Z TUE...WITH NW GRAD DMNSHG BY THAT TIME. NEXT
REINFORCING CDFNT PASSES PER AVN RUN WED EVNG INTO ERY THU.
MCKINLEY/~GJM

.ALY...NY ERN/VT EXTRM SRN/MA EXTRM WRN/CT NW...NONE.

In the hours before

Local storm report, Jul 1, 2:03 PM EST, 1 hour 22 minutes before
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ALBANY NY
303 PM EDT SUN JUL 01 2001

TIME(EDT)  .....CITY LOCATION..... STATE  ...EVENT/REMARKS...
           ....COUNTY LOCATION....

0244 PM    GLEN                      NY   WIND DAMAGE
07/01/01   MONTGOMERY                     TREES

0244 PM    GLEN                      NY   WIND DAMAGE
07/01/01   MONTGOMERY                     2 TREES DOWN

0247 PM    JOHNSTOWN                 NY   WIND DAMAGE
07/01/01   FULTON                         SMALL TREES DOWN - DIME
                                          HAIL

0257 PM    ROTTERDAM                 NY   WIND DAMAGE
07/01/01   SCHENECTADY                    LARGE TREES LIMBS DOWN

0300 PM    COLONIE                   NY   WIND DAMAGE
07/01/01   ALBANY                         NUMEROUS TREES DOWN
Local storm report, Jul 1, 2:34 PM EST, 51 minutes before
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ALBANY NY
334 PM EDT SUN JUL 01 2001

TIME(EDT)  .....CITY LOCATION..... STATE  ...EVENT/REMARKS...
           ....COUNTY LOCATION....

0310 PM    GLENVILLE                 NY   WIND DAMAGE
07/01/01   SCHENECTADY                    2 TREES DOWN ON TWO
                                          SEPARATE HOMES

0320 PM    MILTON CENTER             NY   WIND DAMAGE
07/01/01   SARATOGA                       TREES DOWN
Local storm report, Jul 1, 2:40 PM EST, 45 minutes before
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ALBANY NY
340 PM EDT SUN JUL 01 2001

TIME(EDT)  .....CITY LOCATION..... STATE  ...EVENT/REMARKS...
           ....COUNTY LOCATION....

0315 PM    AMSTERDAM                 NY   WIND DAMAGE
07/01/01   MONTGOMERY                     TREES DOWN

0330 PM    TROY                      NY   WIND DAMAGE
07/01/01   RENSSELAER                     TREES AND WIRES DOWN
Local storm report, Jul 1, 2:58 PM EST, 27 minutes before
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ALBANY NY
358 PM EDT SUN JUL 01 2001

TIME(EDT)  .....CITY LOCATION..... STATE  ...EVENT/REMARKS...
           ....COUNTY LOCATION....

1200 PM    LATHAM                    NY   WIND DAMAGE
07/01/01   ALBANY                         SEVERAL TREES DOWN

1211 PM    SPEIGLETOWN               NY   .88 INCH HAIL
07/01/01   RENSSELAER

1211 PM    SPEIGLETOWN               NY   .75 INCH HAIL
07/01/01   RENSSELAER

0151 PM    WEST SAND LAKE            NY   1 INCH HAIL
07/01/01   RENSSELAER

0151 PM    AVERILL PARK              NY   .75 INCH HAIL
07/01/01   RENSSELAER

0153 PM    POESTENKILL               NY   1 INCH HAIL
07/01/01   RENSSELAER

0200 PM    AVERILL PARK              NY   2 INCH HAIL
07/01/01   RENSSELAER

0225 PM    GUILDERLAND CENTER        NY   WIND DAMAGE
07/01/01   ALBANY                         TREES DOWN AND QUARTER
                                          HAIL

0244 PM    GLEN                      NY   WIND DAMAGE
07/01/01   MONTGOMERY                     TREES

0244 PM    GLEN                      NY   WIND DAMAGE
07/01/01   MONTGOMERY                     2 TREES DOWN

0247 PM    JOHNSTOWN                 NY   WIND DAMAGE
07/01/01   FULTON                         SMALL TREES DOWN - DIME
                                          HAIL

0257 PM    ROTTERDAM                 NY   WIND DAMAGE
07/01/01   SCHENECTADY                    LARGE TREES LIMBS DOWN

0300 PM    COLONIE                   NY   WIND DAMAGE
07/01/01   ALBANY                         NUMEROUS TREES DOWN

0310 PM    GLENVILLE                 NY   WIND DAMAGE
07/01/01   SCHENECTADY                    2 TREES DOWN ON TWO
                                          SEPARATE HOMES

0315 PM    AMSTERDAM                 NY   WIND DAMAGE
07/01/01   MONTGOMERY                     TREES DOWN

0320 PM    MILTON CENTER             NY   WIND DAMAGE
07/01/01   SARATOGA                       TREES DOWN

0320 PM    NEW PALTZ                 NY   WIND DAMAGE
07/01/01   ULSTER                         NUMEROUS TREES DOWN

0320 PM    NEW PALTZ                 NY   WIND DAMAGE
07/01/01   ULSTER                         NUMEROUS WIRES AND LIMBS
                                          DOWN

0330 PM    TROY                      NY   WIND DAMAGE
07/01/01   RENSSELAER                     TREES AND WIRES DOWN

0345 PM    ARLINGTON                 VT   WIND DAMAGE
07/01/01   BENNINGTON                     TREES AND WIRES DOWN
Local storm report, Jul 1, 3:04 PM EST, 21 minutes before
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ALBANY NY
404 PM EDT SUN JUL 01 2001

TIME(EDT)  .....CITY LOCATION..... STATE  ...EVENT/REMARKS...
           ....COUNTY LOCATION....

0401 PM    BEACON                    NY   1 INCH HAIL
07/01/01   DUTCHESS                       QUARTER SIZE HAIL
Local storm report, Jul 1, 3:05 PM EST, 20 minutes before
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ALBANY NY
405 PM EDT SUN JUL 01 2001

TIME(EDT)  .....CITY LOCATION..... STATE  ...EVENT/REMARKS...
           ....COUNTY LOCATION....

0401 PM    BEACON                    NY   1.75 INCH HAIL
07/01/01   DUTCHESS                       GOLFBALL HAIL

The radar

The Brookhaven radar (KOKX), 91 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 20:26 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 tornado, 1 thunderstorm wind. Local standard time, as filed.

Tornado, Litchfield

When
July 1, 3:25 PM EST
Where
Litchfield County, New Milford
Rating
F0
Path length
10 mi
Path width
10 yd
Property damage
$75,000
Reported by
TRAINED SPOTTER
Coordinates
41.567, -73.417

Thunderstorm Wind, Litchfield

When
July 1, 3:30 PM EST
Where
Litchfield County, Harwinton
Property damage
$15,000
Reported by
TRAINED SPOTTER
Coordinates
41.767, -73.067

What these are

Tornado
A violently rotating column of air in contact with the ground and extending from a thunderstorm, filed with its path, width and Fujita or Enhanced Fujita rating from the damage survey.
Thunderstorm Wind
Winds from a thunderstorm of 50 knots (58 mph) or more, or lower winds that caused damage or casualties. Measured gusts are marked MG, estimated EG.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

More

Every storm in Connecticut in 2001Every state in 2001This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for Connecticut, 2001Warnings in Connecticut, July 2001

Sources

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: 5257951, 5257952.