EF1 tornado in Montgomery County, Maryland

The tornado began just east of the Seneca Creek State Park. Staff at the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commissions (WSSC) Seneca Water Resource Recovery Facility witnessed the tornado moving west-to-east directly adjacent to the south of their facility where power lines leading to the facility were snapped causing the facility to

switch to backup power. After its trek south of the facility, it produced large broken branches that fell onto Great Seneca Highway (MD-119), partially blocking the roadway.

The storm continued east and entered the City of Gaithersburg. The first damage surveyed was along Desellum Avenue north of Gaithersburg High School. Here, pine trees were snapped, with large limbs downed. A pair softwood trees, approximately 30 yards apart, were snapped and fell directly towards each other, evidence of a tornado. The storm proceeded towards Old Town Gaithersburg, depositing a large limb on top of St. Martin of Tours Church at the intersection of South Summit Avenue and South Frederick Avenue (MD-355). The housing development directly east of the Gaithersburg City Hall was particularly hard-hit, with seven houses being condemned from trees and branches falling onto them. One large oak tree with a trunk of about three feet was uprooted, and fell into a house on Dogwood Drive, where five occupants were injured and transported to the hospital. Several other trees were uprooted including one in the 200 block of Rolling Road, along with numerous large branches downed. One resident interviewed said they heard the Tornado Warning on their phone about three minutes before damage occurred near them. Once notified, their family took action to go to the basement of their home to remain safe.

Video recorded the tornado moving east, north of the Intercounty Connector (ICC/MD-200) near Redland. Additional tree damage was reported by Montgomery County Emergency Management and trained weather spotters between Redland and Olney. The Sandy Spring Volunteer Fire Department reported trees down near Sandy Spring. Additional trees were down just east of Ashton per Montgomery County Emergency Management.

This was the last area of concentrated damage in Montgomery County.

On the afternoon and evening of Wednesday, June 5th, 2024, a warm front slowly lifted northeast across the eastern Panhandle of West Virginia into northern Virginia as well as central and northeastern Maryland. At the same time, low pressure tracked along the warm front causing severe thunderstorms and tornadoes to develop. Over a dozen tornadoes were confirmed in just under six hours.