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EF1 tornado in Howard County, Maryland

Tornado November 2, 2018 · Howard County, Maryland

EF1

Rating

5.5 mi

Whole path

200 yd

Path width

$900K

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Howard County → Carroll County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 200 yards (0.11 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 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

A tornado touched down in extreme northwestern Howard County, Maryland, approximately 1 mile south of Interstate 70/US-40/Baltimore National Pike at 8:19 PM EDT. Several wooden power poles were snapped along Penn Shop Road just east of MD-27/Ridge Road, indicative of winds over 100 MPH. The path continued northeastward into Carroll County.

The wider storm

A dynamic low pressure system tracked through the Mid-Atlantic states on the evening of November 2nd. A squall line developed along the cold front, and while instability was limited, deep and low level shear were strong enough to support the development of a quasi-linear convective system. The most intense portions of the system were able to generate localized severe damaging winds and tornadoes.

Began near Long Corner (39.3479, -77.1713).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

1 more tornado the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

EF1 Baltimore City (c) County 2 dead

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 791226. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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