EF1 Tornado — Baltimore City (c), Maryland

2018-11-02 · near Penn Mary Jct, Baltimore City (c), Maryland

Event narrative

A tornado touched down in Baltimore City at about 9:42 PM EDT on Friday evening, November 2, 2018. Initial damage was to a tractor trailer which was blown over on Interstate 95 just north of the Fort McHenry Tunnel. A few trees were topped just west of the interstate, and a fence line blew over on South Newkirk Street just to the east. This damage is consistent with winds of about 70 MPH.

The tornado tracked generally eastward roughly parallel to Holabird Avenue. It blew in large garage doors on both side of the building at Flexi-Van Leasing facility, consistent with wind speeds over 90 MPH.

As it continued eastward, it impacted the north building of the Amazon sorting facility, reaching a peak intensity of around 105 MPH. It blew the roof off a portion of the building, including iron rafters. With the loss of the roof, the eight inch concrete wall panels pushed in and collapsed into the building towards the north end of the west wall. Two fatalities occurred inside the building with the wall collapse. About a dozen truck trailers were pushed over, moved, or rolled by the wind. Two of the trailers were noted to have been blown in an opposite direction of the wind that toppled the wall. Several light stanchions and signs were blown over, and several car windows were blown out by flying debris. Radar data from the FAA's Terminal Doppler Weather Radar near Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport indicated this was around 9:43 PM EDT, and this is when the strongest velocity signature was noted.

The tornado continued east along the south side of Holabird Avenue, uprooting several large trees, and snapping dozens of large branches, consistent with winds of about 80 MPH.

Damage along the entire path was mainly convergent, and while much of the damage was from west-southwest to east-northeast, there were several notable exceptions of damage in differing directions. An eyewitness fire fighter outside the Baltimore City Fire Department Engine 50 firehouse in the area saw the swirling debris and funnel cloud as it passed. The tornado lifted as it reached the intersection with Dundalk Avenue, which according to radar would have been at about 9:44 PM EDT.

Wider weather episode

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.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (39.2700, -76.5552)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 791228. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.