Name: High Wind in New Jersey, May 21, 2001
Start: 2001-05-21T16:00
End: 2001-05-21T16:00
Location: New Jersey

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 happened

The episode as NWS OKX wrote it up.

On Monday evening, May 21st, a warm front was located across the Delmarva region, and was moving slowly north. This front extended well east of an intense low pressure system centered over the western Great Lakes. Meanwhile, a strong high pressure system was located in the Canadian Maritimes. A tight pressure gradient developed between the approaching warm front and the strong high pressure system. This created a rather narrow band of strong winds across portions of northeast New Jersey Monday evening, into the early morning hours of Tuesday, May 22nd. Winds averaged 30 to 35 mph for several hours, with occasional gusts reaching or slightly exceeding 50 mph, across portions of Union County during this period. These strong winds, combined with occasionally heavy rain, toppled large tree limbs onto power lines, producing scattered power outages.

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 New York, NY wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at May 21, 1:30 PM EST, 2 hours 30 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, May 21, 1:30 PM EST, 2 hours 30 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW YORK NY
230 PM EDT MON MAY 21 2001

DISC: 88D SHOWING THE RAIN BEGINNING TO FILL IN FROM THE SW. MOST OF
THE STATIONS ARE JUST GETTING INTO THE LIGHT RAIN. ALL MODELS ARE IN
GENERAL AGREEMENT WITH THE MOVEMENT OF THE WARM FRONT. THE FRONT
WILL CONTINUE TO LIE TO OUT S AND A GOOD OVER RUNNING PATTERN IS
GOING TO SHAPE UP. DURING TUE MRNG THE FNT WILL GET SOMEWHAT CLOSER
TO US AND THE RAIN CUD GET MODERATE TO HEAVY AT TIMES. QPF AMOUNTS
ARE CLOSE TO THE 2 IN MARK AND THERE WILL BE A GD SHOT OF OMEGA AND
A THETA RIDGE WILL ALSO BEGIN TO MOVE INTO THE REGION. BY TUE NIGHT
THE TRIPLE POINT WILL APPROACH AND WE DESTABILIZE EVEN MORE. WILL
ADD A CHANCE OF A THUNDERSTORM FOR FOR THAT TIME PERIOD. THE FRNT
WILL MOVE THRU BY WED MORNING AND ALL THE DYNAMICS MOVE TO THE NORTH
AND WE GET DRY SLOTED. THE LOWER CLOUDS ALSO MOVES NORTH AND THERE
MAY BE A PEAK OF SUN. THERE STILL IS A FAIR AMOUNT OF LOW LEVEL
MOIST AND WE ARE A BIT UNSTABLE...SO THERE WILL BE CHANCE OF A SCT
SHWR.

WARM FRONT VERY SLOWLY MOVES TO THE NORTH DURING WED NIGHT AND
THU...WE ARE STILL IN THE DRY SLOT AND WK HI PRES TRIES TO BUILD IN
FOR WED INTO THU. UPR LOWS REMAIN WELL TO THE WEST AND THE COLD
FRONT WILL TAKE ITS TIME IN GETTING TO US. BY THU THE WK HI IS OVR
NRN NEW ENG AND WILL ARE DRY UNTIL THE COLD FRNT APPROACHES TO THE E
CST. WITH THE UPR LOWS SO FAR TO THE WEST IST IS GOING TO BE AWHILE
BEFORE IT GETS HERE.

.OKX...
NY...NONE.
NJ...NONE.
CT...NONE.
MARINE...SCA FOR ALL WATERS...ANZ350-353-355-330-335-338.

Event by event

1 high wind. Local standard time, as filed.

High Wind, Union

When: May 21, 4:00 PM EST
Where: Union forecast zone
Reported by: NEWSPAPER

What these are

High Wind: Sustained non-thunderstorm winds of 40 mph or more for an hour, or gusts of 58 mph or more.

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

The same day elsewhere

More

Every storm in New Jersey in 2001 Every state in 2001 This day in weather history Warnings in New Jersey, May 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: 5245618.