Name: Damaging Wind in Tennessee, May 6, 2001
Start: 2001-05-06T15:00
End: 2001-05-06T15:00
Location: Tennessee

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: None recorded
Crop damage: $8,000
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 Morristown, TN wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at May 6, 1:40 PM EST, 1 hour 20 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, May 6, 1:40 PM EST, 1 hour 20 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MORRISTOWN TN
240 PM EDT SUN MAY 6 2001

STORMS FIRING THIS AFTERNOON...PRIMARILY OVER THE SMOKIES AND SRN
MTNS...AND ALSO ALONG EASTERN EDGE OF THE PLATEAU.  THIS IS GENERALLY
ALONG THE AXIS OF BEST INSTABILITY...ALTHO ANOTHER MOST UNSTABLE
AREA IS NE TIP OF TN INTO SWRN VA.  STORMS ARE MOVING SLOWLY N...
AND HAVE POTENTIAL TO AFFECT MUCH OF THE TN VALLEY COUNTIES THIS
EVENING.  I WILL RUN 30-40% POPS...WORDED AS MAINLY THIS EVENING...
AND ADD SCATTERED AREAL COVERAGE QUALIFIER.  ONE STORM BRIEFLY
PULSED OVER REMOTE PARTS OF BLOUNT COUNTY...OTHERWISE MOST FOLKS
SHOULD WELCOME THESE RAINS.

MONDAY-TUESDAY...OLD FRONTAL BOUNDARY LINES UP AS A WARM FRONT...
N TO S ACROSS WRN COUNTY WARNING AREA...SO WENT HIGHER CHANCE POPS
THOSE SECTIONS MONDAY.  CONTINUED JUST SLIGHT CHANCE POPS MONDAY
FOR SWRN VA/EXTREME NE TN ZONES.  OTHERWISE...FAVORED THE MESO-ETA
/ETA MODELS FOR THESE PERIODS...SO UNDERCUT THE HIGHER FAN/MAV
POPS...UNTIL TUESDAY WHEN UPPER RIDGE SHIFTS EAST AS UPPER TROF
AND ASSOCIATED COLD FRONT ENTER WEST HALF OF TN.  WITH RIDGE SLOWLY
EXITING...I DID NOT LIMIT CONVECTION TO JUST DIURNAL FOR 3RD/4TH
PERIODS.

MAV/FAN TEMPS APPEARED TOO COOL GENERALLY ALL PERIODS...SO MY NUMBERS
BELOW ARE MORE IN LINE WITH THE FWC MOS.

CHA  62/77/60/74/54  40/50/40/60
TYS  61/73/58/72/52  30/30/40/50
TRI  57/71/53/71/49  30/20/30/50
OQT  60/72/58/71/51  30/30/40/50

.MRX...
NC...NONE.
TN...NONE.
VA...NONE.

TG

The radar

The Knoxville radar (KMRX), 12 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 19:58 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 thunderstorm wind. Local standard time, as filed.

Thunderstorm Wind, Hamblen

When: May 6, 3:00 PM EST
Where: Hamblen County, Countywide
Crop damage: $8,000
Reported by: LAW ENFORCEMENT
Coordinates: 36.217, -83.283

Trees down.

What these are

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 Tennessee in 2001 Every state in 2001 This day in weather history Warnings in Tennessee, 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: 5243822.