Name: Tornado in Idaho, July 15, 2001
Start: 2001-07-15T14:25
End: 2001-07-15T14:50
Location: Idaho

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: None recorded
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 1

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 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 Pocatello, ID wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jul 15, 1:45 PM MST, 40 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jul 15, 1:45 PM MST, 40 minutes before

SOUTHEAST IDAHO AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE POCATELLO/IDAHO FALLS ID
245 PM MDT SUN JUL 15 2001

UPPER LOW NORTH OF VANCOUVER ISLE WILL MIGRATE SLOWLY NORTHEAST WITH
COLD FRONT PUSHING EAST DURING DAY ON MON.  H5 TROUGH EXTENDS S TO CAL
COAST WITH MINOR SHORTWAVES SPOKING NE IN FLOW ALOFT OVER ID.  ONE
REGION OF CONVECTION FORMING OVER CUSTER COUNTY VICINTY OF UPPER LOW
WHILE SECOND REGION FORMING FROM DIURNAL HEARING OVER SOUTH ID.  NEW
ETA/MESO-ETA RUNS RESOLVED DRY TREND THIS AFTERNOON OVER PIH CWA TODAY
AND PREFER AS MODELS OF CHOICE.  H7 FRONTOGENETIC REGION CROSSES AREA
MON NIGHT INTO EARLY TUE BUT THE UPPER DIVERGENCE THAT WAS LOCATED
OVER CENTRAL ID AND EXTREME ZONE 19 TODAY WILL BE MOVING OUT OF AREA
ON MON.  AIR MASS BECOMES INCREASING DRIER BY TUE-WED SO WILL KEEP
POPS IN SLIGHT CHC/CHC BRACKET ALL 4 PERIODS.  ETA RUN PAINTS LI
REGION OF -2 TO -4 OVER EASTERN HIGHLANDS (SO POPS A LITTLE HIGHER
THERE) ON MON THEN GRADUALLY PUSHES INSTABILITY AXIS FURTHER EAST WITH
UPPER TROUGH AXIS ON TUE.  MODELS INDICATE SOME BOUNDARY LAYER COOLING
TUE-WED SO AGREE WITH IDEA OF HIGHS UPPER 70S TO LOWER 80S VALLEYS AND
70S MOUNTAINS.  WINDS...UPSLOPE 15 TO 25 MPH ON MON THEN DECREASING TO
10 TO 15 MPH ON TUE POST-COLD FRONT.

EXTENDED...UPPER LOW SPLITS WITH PRIMARY LOW SHIFTING INTO ALBERTA ON
WED WITH SECONDARY LOW OFF WEST OR COAST AS TROUGH AXIS BECOMES MORE
POSITIVELY TILTED OVER TIME.  GREAT BASIN HIGH BUILDS BETWEEN TWO
SYSTEMS ON THU/FRI ALLOWING A DRYING TREND.  THIS WILL BOOST TEMPS
BACK TO MORE NORMAL LEVELS BY FRI-SUN.

TA

BYI 56/83/53/80 3222

.KSFX WSR-88D...OPERATIONAL...VCP 21.

PIH B]B 054/082 050/080 047 04322

.PIH...NONE

The radar

The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.

Tornado, Power

When: July 15, 2:25 PM MST to 2:50 PM MST
Where: Power County, 8 mi N of Rockland
Rating: F0
Path length: 0.4 mi
Path width: 20 yd
Reported by: OFFICIAL NWS OBS.
Coordinates: 42.683, -112.867

A weak tornado touched down near Massacre Rocks in the Rock Creek Road area between 3:25 PM and 3:50 PM MDT. The tornado was witnessed by many of the public and was also visible form the Pocatello NWS office to the southwest. The tornado occurred over open land and produced no damage. A survey by NWS personnel classified it as a low end F0 tornado. No personal or monetary losses occurred from this weak tornado.

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.

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

The same day elsewhere

More

Every storm in Idaho in 2001 Every state in 2001 This day in weather history The tornado archive for Idaho, 2001 Warnings in Idaho, 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: 5257835.