EF1 Tornado — St. Mary's, Maryland

2025-07-01 · near Abells Wharf, St. Mary's, Maryland

Event narrative

On the evening of Tuesday, July 1st, 2025, a severe thunderstorm produced an EF-1 tornado three miles southwest of Leonardtown, along Breton Bay, Maryland. The tornado started near the Breton Bay Community Dock where it uprooted two pine trees. The tornado then continued northeast along Lake and Breton View Drive and Breton View Court, causing numerous trees to uproot, snap, or have damage in a convergent manner. Many trees were topped in this vicinity. One large sycamore tree was uprooted, with estimated wind speed of 90 MPH in this area. Minor roof damage on a residence was observed, with shingles removed from the roof deck; several windows were also broken. The tornado took a path directly along the water-land interface, becoming a waterspout on the coves along Breton Bay, then returning ashore as a tornado. Numerous boats were flipped off their raised docks near and around Paw Paw Point, creating property damage as the vortex circulation headed northeast. A three foot diameter sycamore tree was snapped on Paw Paw Point, which led to the estimated maximum wind speed of the tornado of 100 MPH. A video of the waterspout was forwarded to the National Weather Service and deemed reliable, along with images of boat and tree damage at Paw Paw Point. Both the KLWX WSR-88D and TDWR TADW radars showed a brief convergent couplet right over the area surveyed, corroborating with where the damage existed. The tornado lifted after it did its damage on Paw Paw Point, as the National Weather Service survey team assessed Mulberry Point to the northeast without any evidence of wind damage. From both KLWX WSR-88D and TDWR TADW radars, the vortex dissipated just west of MD-5 Three Notch Road, as it was overtaken by the rear flank downdraft which resulted in straight line wind damage east to the Patuxent River.

Wider weather episode

A strong cold front produced widespread showers and thunderstorms. Some of these storms organized into lines and produced localized damaging wind gusts. A discrete supercell thunderstorm produced a brief tornado over southern Maryland.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (38.2590, -76.6720)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1269057. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.