F1 tornado, Austin to Pflugerville, Texas, November 15, 2001

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.

Rating

F1

Date

November 15, 2001

Touchdown

5:30 PM CST (23:30 UTC)

Path length

3.0 miles (4.8 km)

Path width

500 yards (457 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$80,000

County

Travis County

Touchdown point

30.230, -97.700

Lift-off point

30.250, -97.650

Record number

1141

A small F0 tornado struck near Yeager Lane in northeast Austin. It moved toward the northeast for two miles, then dissipated. Along its path, it damaged several carports and mobile homes and destroyed numerous trees. One school was involved in a tornado drill as the tornado approached. With students already safely in the hallways, no additional action was needed.

An F0 tornado struck south of Austin near the airport. Moving from near Montopolis and Riverside Drive northeastward, it lifted up and down. At 1200 Montopolis Road, it tore the roof off the Montopolis Community Center, continued toward the Bastrop Highway, then lifted and dissipated. Large sheets of the metal roof were lifted and wrapped around two trees behind the center and against a house across the street. Around 50 people in the building at the time reported hearing the roar of a freight train.

A second tornado struck near the Austin-Bergstrom airport, and was also identified by the airport observer. It moved from 1.5 miles northwest of the airport tower northeastward across SH183 and the Bastrop Highway and dissipated around 4 miles northeast of the tower. It also lifted and dropped during its life.

A small and short-lived F0 tornado was spotted by the public who had been trained in NWS public safety programs. The tornado occurred in an open area and caused no damage.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

26 minutes of warning. NWS EWX issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:04 UTC, 26 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:00 UTC.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:39 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 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.

Austin - Bergstrom AFB (BSM) (BSM), 5 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2001 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

22 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.