Tornadoes · United States · North Carolina · 2001
F0 tornado, Monroe, North Carolina, July 4, 2001
This F0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Union County on July 4, 2001, touching down at 8:38 PM EDT. It killed nobody, and did $20,000 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
- July 4, 2001
- Touchdown
- 8:38 PM EDT (00:38 UTC)
- Path length
- 0.2 miles (0.3 km)
- Path width
- 0 yards (0 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $20,000
- County
- Union County
- Touchdown point
- 35.070, -80.470
- Lift-off point
- 35.070, -80.470
- Record number
- 327
What the Weather Service recorded
A "gustnado" formed along a gust front ahead of a line of thunderstorms. The small tornado destroyed a 70 X 70 barn by lifting its roof and carrying it 100 yards and dropping it to the ground. A refrigerator inside the barn had its door removed and a large post, buried three feet into the ground, was pulled out and carried about 100 yards. The vortex lifted briefly, then carved a 10-foot wide path through soybean fields.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
What forecasters said that day
The local office's own words before the tornado touched down, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Greenville-Spartanburg, SC wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Jul 4, 3:30 PM EDT, 5 hours 8 minutes earlier.
Area forecast discussion, Jul 4, 3:30 PM EDT, 5 hours 8 minutes before
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREENVILLE-SPARTANBURG SC 330 PM EDT WED JUL 4 2001 CONVECTION MAINLY SCATTERED OVER CWFA FOR NOW. SHORT WAVE MOVING THRU UPPER TROF HELPING TO SET UP SQUALL LINE TO OUR NORTHWEST. THIS LINE WILL MOVE INTO THE MTNS BY EVENING. SVR TSRA POSSIBLE WITH THE LINE. OTHER STRONG CONVECTION FORMING ALONG LEE TROF OVER FOOTHILLS. ISOLATED SVR TSRA POSSIBLE HERE AS WELL. WILL USE AT LEAST LIKELY POPS ALL AREAS THIS EVENING AS CONVECTION WILL BECOME MORE NUMEROUS. ATMOS DRIES OUT A LITTLE WITH WLY FLOW THU. HOWEVER ANOTHER SHORT WAVE/THERMAL TROF AND SFC FNT MOVE THRU. SCT AFT CONVECTION POSSIBLE...BUT MUCH LESS COVERAGE THAN TODAY. 30 POP SHOULD SUFFICE. HIGHS VARY ONLY A LITTLE AS LOW LEVEL THICKNESSES REMAIN NEARLY THE SAME. HOWEVER LOWS THU AND FRI NITES SHOULD BE LOWER GIVEN CLEAR SKIES AND LOWER DEW POINTS. GSP 70 89 65 90 / 50 30 0 0 AND 70 89 65 90 / 50 30 0 0 CLT 70 89 65 88 / 50 30 0 0 HKY 67 87 63 87 / 50 30 0 0 AVL 65 86 60 85 / 50 30 0 0 .GSP... GA...NONE. NC...NONE. SC...NONE. RWH
In the hours before
Local storm report, Jul 4, 6:19 PM EDT, 2 hours 19 minutes before
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREENVILLE SPARTANBURG SC
619 PM EDT WED JUL 04 2001
TIME(EDT) .....CITY LOCATION..... STATE ...EVENT/REMARKS...
....COUNTY LOCATION....
610 PM RUTHERFORDTON NC WIND DAMAGE
07/04/01 RUTHERFORD COUNTY COMMUNICATIONS
REPORTED TREES BLOWN DOWN
IN/ RUTHERFORDTON AND ALSO
ONE IN LAKE LURE.
JONESLocal storm report, Jul 4, 6:35 PM EDT, 2 hours 3 minutes before
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREENVILLE SPARTANBURG SC
635 PM EDT WED JUL 04 2001
TIME(EDT) .....CITY LOCATION..... STATE ...EVENT/REMARKS...
....COUNTY LOCATION....
625 PM FOREST CITY NC WIND DAMAGE
07/04/01 RUTHERFORD NUMEROUS TREES AND LINES
DOWN. POWER POLES
SNAPPED IN HALF. CAR
POSSIBLY TRAPPED UNDER
LINES. URBAN FLOODING.
JONESLocal storm report, Jul 4, 6:51 PM EDT, 1 hour 47 minutes before
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREENVILLE SPARTANBURG SC
651 PM EDT WED JUL 04 2001
TIME(EDT) .....CITY LOCATION..... STATE ...EVENT/REMARKS...
....COUNTY LOCATION....
647 PM 6 N ASHEVILLE NC NON TSTM WINDS
07/04/01 BUNCOMBE EOC REPORTED TREES DOWN
IN WEAVERVILLE.
JATLocal storm report, Jul 4, 7:06 PM EDT, 1 hour 32 minutes before
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREENVILLE SPARTANBURG SC
706 PM EDT WED JUL 04 2001
TIME(EDT) .....CITY LOCATION..... STATE ...EVENT/REMARKS...
....COUNTY LOCATION....
630 PM KEOWEE KEY SC WIND DAMAGE
07/04/01 OCONEE DAMAGING WINDS OCCURRED
IN EASTERN HALF OF COUNTY
FROM ABOUT 615 PM TO 645
PM. NUMEROUS TREES AND
LINES DOWN.
JONESSpecial weather statement, Jul 4, 7:35 PM EDT, 1 hour 3 minutes before
NCZ033>035-048>055-058-059-062>065-050030- SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREENVILLE-SPARTANBURG SC 735 PM EDT WED JUL 4 2001 THE FOLLOWING COUNTIES HAVE BEEN CLEARED FROM SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH NUMBER 508... IN THE PIEDMONT OF NORTH CAROLINA... ALEXANDER. IN WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA... JACKSON...MACON...CALDWELL...SWAIN...MADISON...HAYWOOD...MITCHELL... MCDOWELL...AVERY...GRAHAM...YANCEY...TRANSYLVANIA...BUNCOMBE... HENDERSON AND BURKE. THE THREAT OF SEVERE WEATHER HAS MOVED OUT OF THESE COUNTIES. STAY TUNED TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO OR YOUR FAVORITE MEDIA OUTLET FOR THE LATEST UPDATES CONCERNING THIS SEVERE WEATHER SITUATION. DELGXADO
Local storm report, Jul 4, 8:35 PM EDT, 3 minutes before
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREENVILLE SPARTANBURG SC
835 PM EDT WED JUL 04 2001
TIME(EDT) .....CITY LOCATION..... STATE ...EVENT/REMARKS...
....COUNTY LO5CATION....
817 PM 14 E ANDERSON SC 58 MPH
07/04/01 ANDERSON SPOTTER MEASURED WIND.
JATThe air that afternoon
The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.
Greensboro/Hi Pt, NC (KGSO), 12:00Z
11.4 hours after it, 124 km from the path. July 5, 2001.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -49581 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 32 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 939 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 20 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 8 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 10 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 48 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.3 K/km
The surface observations
Monroe_airport_(Asos) (EQY), 15 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:00 UTC |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Columbia radar (KCAE), 138 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:37 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 North CarolinaEvery tornado in North Carolina since 1950Warnings in force in North Carolina nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of July 4, 2001
2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
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.