Tornadoes · United States · California · 2001
F0 tornado, Orange, California, February 24, 2001
This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Orange County on February 24, 2001, touching down at 1:50 PM PST and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $50,000 of property damage.
The rating scale
Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.
F040 to 72 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
F2113 to 157 mph
Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.
F3158 to 206 mph
Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.
F4207 to 260 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
F5261 to 318 mph
Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.
Unrated
The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.
The record
- Rating
- F0
- Date
- February 24, 2001
- Touchdown
- 1:50 PM PST (21:50 UTC)
- Path length
- 0.1 miles (0.2 km)
- Path width
- 100 yards (91 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $50,000
- County
- Orange County
- Touchdown point
- 33.780, -117.830
- Lift-off point
- 33.780, -117.830
- Record number
- 4
What the Weather Service recorded
Witnesses reported hearing a loud roaring sound like a freight train, followed by 45 seconds of intense wind and heavy rain. A funnel cloud was sighted in the area following the wind damage. Damage consisted of roof shingles, skylights, and metal awnings being ripped off six structures, two 10 ft. by 15 ft. roll-up doors being blown in, several wooden fences knocked down, as well as telephone wires. An NWS meteorologist conducting a damage survey noted a cyclonic pattern in the debris.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.
Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.
The surface observations
Santa Ana/Jon-Wayne (SNA), 12 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19:53 UTC | 52 | 50 | 140° 7 kt | 1017.9 | -RA BR | |
| 20:53 UTC | 53 | 50 | 140° 8 kt | 1017.6 | -RA | |
| 21:00 UTC | 53.6 | 50 | 130° 7 kt | 1017.6 | -RA | |
| 21:53 UTC | 54 | 49 | 180° 7 kt | 1017.3 | -RA | |
| 22:53 UTC | 54 | 50 | 120° 6 kt | 1016.9 | -RA |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Santa Ana Mts radar (KSOX), 18 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:48 UTC.
Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track
Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2001 tornado in CaliforniaEvery tornado in California since 1950Warnings in force in California nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of February 24, 2001
20 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| February 24 | 3:24 PM CST | F1 | Webster, MO | 6.5 | 50 | $150,000 | ||
| February 24 | 3:31 PM CST | F2 | Pulaski, AR | 14.3 | 200 | 8 | ||
| February 24 | 3:50 PM CST | F1 | Pulaski, AR | 2.2 | 85 | |||
| February 24 | 4:06 PM CST | F2 | Lonoke, AR | 8.0 | 300 | |||
| February 24 | 4:14 PM CST | F1 | White, AR | 7.0 | 100 | |||
| February 24 | 4:21 PM CST | F1 | Lonoke, AR | 9.0 | 60 | 3 | ||
| February 24 | 4:27 PM CST | F1 | White, AR | 3.5 | 40 | |||
| February 24 | 4:46 PM CST | F2 | Fulton, AR | 8.0 | 300 | 1 | 3 | |
| February 24 | 5:34 PM CST | F2 | Jackson, AR | 11.0 | 200 | $70,000 | ||
| February 24 | 5:43 PM CST | F1 | Drew, AR | 5.5 | 100 | 1 | ||
| February 24 | 6:01 PM CST | F3 | Desha, AR | 42.0 | 300 | |||
| February 24 | 6:10 PM CST | F0 | Ashley, AR | 0.5 | 200 | $1,000 | ||
| February 24 | 6:13 PM CST | F1 | Lonoke, AR | 2.7 | 100 | |||
| February 24 | 6:25 PM CST | F2 | Prairie, AR | 12.7 | 200 | |||
| February 24 | 6:30 PM CST | F0 | Chicot, AR | 0.5 | 200 | $1,000 | ||
| February 24 | 6:35 PM CST | F2 | Washington, MS | 37.0 | 440 | $1.5 million | ||
| February 24 | 6:42 PM CST | F2 | Desha, AR | 9.0 | 200 | 2 | $50,000 | |
| February 24 | 8:20 PM CST | F0 | Humphreys, MS | 0.5 | 350 | $10,000 | ||
| February 24 | 8:37 PM CST | F3 | Leflore, MS | 22.0 | 400 | $2.3 million | ||
| February 24 | 9:35 PM CST | F3 | Calhoun, MS | 52.0 | 1,000 | 6 | 73 | $31 million |
What this means
Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.
Sources
NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.