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EF0 tornado in Howard County, Maryland

Tornado June 5, 2024 · Howard County, Maryland

EF0
Rating
0.9 mi
Path length
75 yd
Path width
$3.0M
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 75 yards (0.04 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF0 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF0 is light damage: shingles and siding peeled, gutters torn, branches broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 65–85 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

National Weather Service Baltimore/Washington Weather Forecast Office staff conducted a ground survey of storm damage that occurred in the Long Reach village of Columbia, MD, on the evening of Wednesday, June 5, 2024.

Damage was reported in Columbia, MD, in Long Reach village at Phelps Luck Drive, along High Tor Hill, and the 5600 block of Waterloo Road.

The first report of damage was at Phelps Luck Drive. A townhouse development near the intersection of High Tor Hill and Tamar Drive experienced concentrated tornadic damage. Here, approximately two dozen trees were snapped or uprooted, falling in various directions. About a dozen cars parked in the townhouse community parking lot were damaged by trees or large limbs falling onto them. Roofing fascia was peeled off of one townhome. Damage was more intermittent but present heading north toward the 5600 block of High Tor Hill. Finally, tree damage was also reported at the 5600 block of Waterloo Road.

The wider storm

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.

Began near Jonestown (39.2150, -76.8220).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

8 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1174104. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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