Tornadoes · United States · Tennessee · 2001
F1 tornado, Ramer, Tennessee, May 31, 2001
This F1 tornado ran 5.0 miles across McNairy County on May 31, 2001, touching down at 3:50 PM CDT and reaching 200 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $100,000 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 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mphthis tornado
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
- F1
- Date
- May 31, 2001
- Touchdown
- 3:50 PM CDT (20:50 UTC)
- Path length
- 5.0 miles (8.0 km)
- Path width
- 200 yards (183 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $100,000
- County
- McNairy County
- Touchdown point
- 35.070, -88.630
- Lift-off point
- 35.100, -88.550
- Record number
- 139
What the Weather Service recorded
The tornado started near Ramer and tracked northeast. The tornado dissipated just after crossing US Highway 45. Two homes had major damage with one house moving off its foundation. Several other homes had minor damage. A recreational vehicle was tipped over.
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 Memphis, TN wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at May 31, 3:31 PM CDT, 19 minutes earlier.
Area forecast discussion, May 31, 3:31 PM CDT, 19 minutes before
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MEMPHIS TN 331 PM CDT THU MAY 31 2001 LATEST 88D LOOP SHOWS AN AREA OF TSTMS INVOF OF MKL EVOLVING INTO A SMALL LINE OF TSTMS MOVING TO THE NE. ELSEWHERE A FEW SCATTERED TSTMS WERE DEVELOPING ACROSS SE MO/NE AR JUST AHEAD OF THE FNT. WITH MCLDY SKIES AS SEEN ON VIS SAT TEMPS HAVE REMAINED IN THE 70S MOST AREAS. SFC DPTS WERE MAINLY IN THE MID/UPR 60S WITH A TONGUE OF LWR 70S EXTENDING NWD INTO NRN MS. EXPECT ADDITIONAL TSTMS ACTIVITY TO DEVELOP THIS EVENING AS THE FNT PUSHES EWD AND A VORTICITY LOBE SWINGS THRU THE REGION. INSTABILITY PARAMETERS SUGGEST THAT SOME STORMS HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO REACH SVR CRITERIA DESPITE EXTENSIVE CLD CVR AND RECENT PRECIP FROM THIS MORNING. WILL HAVE HIEST POPS IN THE SRN ZNS WHERE THERE ARE HIER DPTS. THE UPR LOW OVR THE MID MS VALLEY WILL LIFT NEWD INTO THE GTLKS REGION BY 00Z SAT FOLLOWED BY A SECOND UPR LVL SW OVR THE WEEKEND. AS A RESULT A SECOND FNT WILL APPROACH THE FA ON SAT BRING ANOTHER CHC FOR TSTMS. WILL CARRY CHC POPS ALL ZNS. WILL TREND TWD FWC TEMPS THRU THE FCST PD. IN THE EXTENDED THE NEXT FNT WILL PUSH INTO THE FA LATE MON BRINGING A CHC FOR TSTMS LATE MO N INTO TUE. HI PRES WILL SETTLE INTO THE AREA BRINGING DRY CONDITIONS WED AND THU. PRELIMINARY NUMBERS... MEM 64/80/64/82 511 MKL 63/78/61/81 513 JBR 62/80/61/82 413 TUP 66/79/63/83 611 .MEG...NONE.
The surface observations
Sibley (SZY), 16 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 Memphis radar (KNQA), 120 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:47 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 TennesseeEvery tornado in Tennessee since 1950Warnings in force in Tennessee nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of May 31, 2001
9 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 31 | 3:08 PM CDT | F0 | Madison, IL | 0.2 | 50 | $50,000 | ||
| May 31 | 3:45 PM CDT | F0 | Cameron, TX | 0.1 | 25 | |||
| May 31 | 3:15 PM MDT | F0 | Cheyenne, CO | 0.5 | 75 | |||
| May 31 | 4:45 PM CDT | F0 | Perry, IL | 0.1 | 30 | |||
| May 31 | 5:45 PM CDT | F1 | Hickman, TN | 0.7 | 50 | $20,000 | ||
| May 31 | 6:50 PM CDT | F0 | Cheyenne, KS | 1.0 | 50 | |||
| May 31 | 7:30 PM CDT | F0 | Logan, KY | 2.0 | 50 | $30,000 | ||
| May 31 | 8:05 PM CDT | F2 | Cannon, TN | 6.3 | 440 | 1 | 2 | $80,000 |
| May 31 | 9:05 PM CDT | F0 | Cedar, NE | 0.5 | 40 |
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.