Name: Damaging Wind in Vermont, August 20, 2001
Start: 2001-08-20T18:20
End: 2001-08-20T18:20
Location: Vermont

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it; 1 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. 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 happened

The episode as NWS BTV wrote it up.

Both a large upper low pressure system and a surface low pressure were located over the eastern Great Lakes region and resulted in scattered showers and thunderstorms. In the Vermont town of Wells, winds associated with a thunderstorm gusted to 37 MPH.

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 Burlington, VT wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Aug 20, 2:12 PM EST, 4 hours 8 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Aug 20, 2:12 PM EST, 4 hours 8 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BURLINGTON VT
312 PM EDT MON AUG 20 2001

UPPER LOW TO WEST OF FA...WITH DRY SLOT IN WATER VAPOR PUSHING UP
THROUGH CENTRAL NY AND APPROACHING FCST AREA.  SHOWERS AND
THUNDERSTORMS FIRED EARLIER THIS AFTERNOON IN ST. LAWRENCE COUNTY
AND HAVE MOVED INTO FRANKLIN COUNTY NY. APPEARS TO BE ALONG
INTERFACE OF MARITIME EASTERLY FLOW THAT HAS PUSHED ALL THE WAY INTO
THE ADIRONDACKS...AND SWLY SFC FLOW ROTATING AROUND SFC LOW.

TONIGHT...WARMER AIR FROM SW TO PUSH NE...AND PASS THROUGH FA AS A
WMFNT OVERNIGHT...WHILE ALOFT ANOTHER VORT MAX ROTATES AROUND THE
UPPER LOW.  CAPES OFF 12Z MDL RUN NOT QUITE AS IMPRESSIVE AS WHAT THE
00Z RUN WAS SHOWING...WTH ETA CAPES MAXING OUT AT A RESPECTABLE 750-
1000 J/KG THIS EVENING.

WE REMAIN UNDER INFLUENCE OF UPPER LOW THRU LATE TUES...AS ANOTHER
SFC BNDRY PASSES THROUGH LATE TUESDAY SHIFTING WINDS TO W. LEFT CHC
SHOWERS/TSTMS IN FOR TUESDAY INTO EARLY TUESDAY NIGHT.

WK RIDGING BUILDS IN THROUGH MOST OF EXTENDED. ON THURSDAY AVN HAS
A MESO SIZED LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM MOVING ACROSS AREA. NOT QUITE SURE
WHAT TO MAKE OF IT...TOO SMALL TO BE A SYNOPTIC SYSTEM...AND IT LOOKS
LIKE THE AVN WORKS UP AN MCS...THEN HOLDS ON TO THE CONVECTIVE
FEEDBACK AND BRINGS IT THROUGH NEW ENGLAND.

TEMPS...LITTLE CHANGE TO TEMPS FROM PREVIOUS FORECAST.

WORK ZONES ALREADY OUT.

.BTV...NONE.

HANSON

The radar

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

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 thunderstorm wind. Local standard time, as filed.

Thunderstorm Wind, Rutland

When: August 20, 6:20 PM EST
Where: Rutland County, Wells
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER
Coordinates: 43.580, -73.037 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

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 Vermont in 2001 Every state in 2001 This day in weather history Warnings in Vermont, 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: 5265822.