Name: Tornado in North Carolina, August 18, 2001
Start: 2001-08-18T13:45
End: 2001-08-18T13:46
Location: North Carolina

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

Open the live radar over this ground

The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: $25,000
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 Wilmington, NC wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Aug 18, 12:35 PM EST, 1 hour 10 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Aug 18, 12:35 PM EST, 1 hour 10 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WILMINGTON, NC
135 PM EDT SAT AUG 18 2001

WV IMAGERY SHOWS SE U.S. IN TRANSITION FROM BERMUDA RIDGE TO BROAD
TROFINESS AROUND MAIN UPR LOW IN WRN GREAT LAKES.  WEAK CONVECTIVELY
INDUCED RIPPLES SHOWING UP OVER SE GA AND LOWER MS RIVER
VALLEY...WITH BETTER DEFINED VORT MOVING ESE ACROSS CENTRAL/SRN
PLAINS.  MSAS ANALYSIS SHOWS BERMUDA HIGH...WITH PIEDMONT TROF
LIGHTING UP NICELY SINCE NOON LOCAL TIME.

GREATEST DIFFICULTY IN THIS FCST IS TRYING TO TIME UPPER FEATURES TO
NAIL DOWN POPS.  MODELS DO NOT HAVE THE GREATEST HANDLE ON THE
CONVECTIVELY INDUCED VORT MAXES...WHICH WILL BE MAIN PLAYERS TONITE
AND EARLY SUN.  FIRST PERIOD POP WILL BE LAST MIN CALL BASED ON
ONGOING ACTIVITY AT PRESS TIME.  TEMPS AOA GUIDANCE DUE TO VERY
JUICY LOW LEVELS.

FEATURE OUT OF SRN PLAINS SWINGS ACROSS LATE SUN.  AVN HOLDS IT
TOGETHER MUCH BETTER THAN ETA/NGM...WHICH I THINK ARE A BIT QUICK IN
SHEARING IT OUT.  TEMPS HIGHLY DEPENDENT ON CLOUD COVER...AND WILL
PROBABLY STAY ON LOW SIDE OF GUIDANCE.  BUST POTENTIAL IS HIGH AS WE
WILL START VERY WARM...SO NOT MUCH SUNSHINE NEEDED TO PUSH TEMPS
INTO 90S.

FRONT MAKES A VERY SLOW APPROACH MON...HAS HARD TIME CUTTING INTO
BERMUDA HIGH.  NO FORCING ALOFT TO REALLY HANG MY HAT ON...SO WILL
KEEP 30-40ISH POPS IN.  TEMPS SLIGHTLY COOLER THAN SUN.

EXTENDED: COLD FRONT TRIES TO PUSH THRU LATE TUE OR TUE NIGHT.
STILL CLOSE ENOUGH ON WED SO WILL NOT PULL WED POPS JUST YET.  MRF
IS BACK TO FLAT RIDGE SCENARIO LATE IN THE WEEK.  IN ANY CASE DRY
FCST THU-SAT LOOKS SAFE FOR NOW.  TEMPS NEAR CLIMO FOR MOST OF
EXTENDED.

CWF:  STILL SEEING 4 FT/10 SEC ESE SWELL...BUT EXPECT IT WILL BE
MASKED SOMEWHAT BY S/SW WIND WAVE BY SUN.  STILL THINK IT WILL MERIT
INCREASED RIP THREAT...ESP FOR S FACING BEACHES.  OTHERWISE PATTERN
REMAINS LARGELY THE SAME WITH SW 15-20 KT THRU THE PERIOD.  MAY
APPROACH BUT NOT REACH SCA CRITERIA AT VARIOUS TIMES SUN/MON.

FCSTID = 35
ILM   78  90  75  87 /  60  40  40  40
LBT   75  90  73  89 /  60  40  40  40
FLO   75  92  73  90 /  60  40  40  40
MYR   79  87  75  86 /  60  40  40  40

.ILM...
NC...NONE.
SC...NONE.

RAS

The radar

The Wilmington radar (KLTX), 77 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 18:43 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.

Tornado, Robeson

When: August 18, 1:45 PM EST to 1:46 PM EST
Where: Robeson County, 6 mi E of Fairmont
Rating: F0
Path length: 0.1 mi
Path width: 15 yd
Property damage: $25,000
Reported by: NWS STORM SURVEY
Coordinates: 34.480, -79.017

A NWS site damage assessment determined a F0 tornado touched down on Broadridge Road, 1 1/2 miles off of Hwy 74W, six miles east of Fairmont. It lifted a shed and carried it 15 yards. Metal roofing was torn from a horse barn and a porch. A chain link fence was also damaged.

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 North Carolina in 2001 Every state in 2001 This day in weather history The tornado archive for North Carolina, 2001 Warnings in North Carolina, August 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: 5263596.