Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. tornado outbreak of 2001

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The Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. tornado outbreak of 2001 was the most dramatic recent tornado event to directly affect the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area in the United States.[1] The outbreak occurred on September 24, 2001, and was responsible for 2 deaths and 57 injuries.[2]

The first tornado of the outbreak was also the strongest - an F4 (see Fujita scale) tornado that left a 10-mile-long damage path through rural Culpeper and Fauquier Counties in Virginia. Weak (F1) tornadoes east of Warrenton, and just west of Dulles International Airport soon followed.

A second supercell to the southeast spawned the family of tornadoes that moved through Washington. A first tornado (F0) was confirmed in the Quantico and Prince William Forest Park areas; this was soon followed by an F1 tornado that left a 15-mile-long path parallel to I-95 and I-395 through Franconia, western Alexandria and Arlington. This tornado dissipated near the west end of the Mall in Washington, D.C., and was followed by many reports of funnel clouds.

The same storm soon produced a violent, multiple-vortex F3 tornado in College Park, Maryland. This storm moved at peak intensity through the University of Maryland, College Park campus, and then moved parallel to I-95 through the Laurel, Maryland area, where F3 damage was also noted. The damage path from this storm was measured at 17.5 miles in length, and this tornado caused 2 deaths and 55 injuries, along with $101 million in property damage.