Tornadoes · United States · North Carolina · 2001

F1 tornado, Menola, North Carolina, June 1, 2001

This F1 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Hertford County on June 1, 2001, touching down at 7:00 PM EDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 3, 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.

  1. F040 to 72 mph

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. F173 to 112 mphthis tornado

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. F4207 to 260 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. 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.

  7. 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
F1
Date
June 1, 2001
Touchdown
7:00 PM EDT (23:00 UTC)
Path length
0.5 miles (0.8 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
3
Property damage
$50,000
County
Hertford County
Touchdown point
36.330, -77.130
Lift-off point
36.300, -77.170
Record number
310

What the Weather Service recorded

A tornado touched down in the vicinity of Menola and Ahoskie Tri County Airport. There were reports of trees down and several buildings damaged.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
23:05 UTC23:30 UTCTornado WarningAKQ

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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 20:47 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

The 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.

Newport, NC (KMHX), 12:00Z

11.0 hours before the tornado, 172 km from the path. June 1, 2001.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Newport, NC at 12:00Z on 2001-06-01Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 506 joules per kilogram, CIN -29, lifted condensation level 793 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Newport, NC at 12:00Z on 2001-06-01The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 63 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 26 knots.1939Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
506 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-29 J/kg
Surface CAPE
5 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
793 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
63 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
94 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.4
0-3 km lapse rate
4.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Newport, NC (KMHX), 00:00Z

1.0 hours after it, 172 km from the path. June 2, 2001.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Newport, NC at 00:00Z on 2001-06-02Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1602 joules per kilogram, CIN -1, lifted condensation level 589 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Newport, NC at 00:00Z on 2001-06-02The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 92 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 29 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
1602 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-1 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3009 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
589 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
92 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
109 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
3.2
0-3 km lapse rate
6.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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 June 1, 2001

24 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 12:00 PM EDTF0Wake, NC0.125
June 11:10 PM CDTF0Wright, MN2.025
June 11:25 PM CDTF0Crawford, IA0.230
June 11:40 PM CDTF0Crawford, IA0.335$30,000
June 11:50 PM CDTF0Crawford, IA0.125
June 14:30 PM EDTF0Crawford, PA5.065$100,000
June 13:35 PM CDTF0Black Hawk, IA0.230
June 13:56 PM CDTF0Edwards, KS0.250
June 14:00 PM CDTF0Edwards, KS0.130
June 14:12 PM CDTF1Bremer, IA8.5100$30,000
June 14:13 PM CDTF0Butler, IA0.125
June 14:25 PM CDTF0Black Hawk, IA0.230
June 14:30 PM CDTF0Black Hawk, IA0.125
June 14:30 PM CDTF0Black Hawk, IA0.230$3,000
June 14:52 PM CDTF0Black Hawk, IA0.635$10,000
June 14:55 PM CDTF1Buchanan, IA1.0150$120,000
June 14:58 PM CDTF0Buchanan, IA0.110
June 15:01 PM CDTF0Buchanan, IA0.110
June 15:06 PM CDTF0Buchanan, IA3.0150$20,000
June 15:11 PM CDTF0Buchanan, IA0.110
June 15:12 PM CDTF0Delaware, IA0.110
June 15:29 PM CDTF0Buchanan, IA0.110$10,000
June 15:34 PM CDTF0Buchanan, IA0.110
June 18:10 PM EDTF1City of Suffolk, VA1.0100$10,000

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.