A warm front, moving into Connecticut, produced a line of showers and isolated thunderstorms during the early afternoon of June 23. One cell developed into a supercell which then spawned two tornados in Litchfield County.
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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 episode as NWS ALY wrote it up.
A warm front, moving into Connecticut, produced a line of showers and isolated thunderstorms during the early afternoon of June 23. One cell developed into a supercell which then spawned two tornados in Litchfield County. The first tornado touched down in the northern end of the town of Washington, on a golf course near Lake Waramaug, cutting a path 50 yards wide and a mile in length. It hit during a lull of a golf tornament that was going on there, damaging the fourth hole of the course as well as destroying a metal fence around a tennis court. This tornado also demolished a storage building. This was ranked as an F1 Tornado, with winds estimated between 75 and 100 mph, by National Weather Service Personnel. The tornado also took out many trees around this area. The tornado lifted back up, but then reformed from the cell as the storm moved into the cities of Torrington and Winstead. This second tornado was ranked on the Fujita scale as an F2 with winds estimated between 100 and 130 mph. It touched down near the Torrington Middle School, over the Midget Football Field cutting a swath two hundred yards wide and a half a mile in length. The tornado destroyed an 8,000 dollar shed that had recently been completed by the Midget Football League. The second twister also demolished the bleachers and part of a roof at the Torrington Middle school. In addition, hundreds of large trees were uprooted. Powerlines were also destroyed. One person was injured when a portion of the blown off roof fell on him, resulting in bone fractures.
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 Jun 23, 10:25 AM EST, 2 hours 35 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ALBANY NY 1125 AM EDT SAT JUN 23 2001 .DISC...WL UPDATE ZONES TO REFRESH WDRG AND TAKE OUT ANY MENTION OF A THIS MORNING PERIOD. THE ONLY REAL WX CHANGE WL BE TO INCREASE POPS ACRS SRN ZONES FM LIKELY TO CATEGORICAL. WL ALSO CHANGE WRDG TO OCNL SHWRS AND SCT TSTMS IN ALL ZONES. FLASH FLOOD WATCHES WL REMAIN IN EFFECT AND WL NOT EXPAND EWD AT THIS TIME. .ALY...FLASH FLOOD WAuTCH FOR FOR TDA IN ALL OF CWA XCPT LWR CONN VLY VT...BERKS...LITCHFIELD AND DUTCHESS CO/S. MAGLARAS
The Brookhaven radar (KOKX), 92 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 18:02 UTC.
2 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Connecticut in 2001Every state in 2001This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for Connecticut, 2001Warnings in Connecticut, June 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: 5252581, 5252582.