EF0 Tornado — Anne Arundel, Maryland

2020-09-03 · near Annapolis Lee Fld Ar, Anne Arundel, Maryland

Event narrative

A supercell thunderstorm tracked east across central Maryland and

produced an EF-1 tornado that touched down late Thursday

afternoon in Edgewater Maryland and continued to the western shore

of the Chesapeake Bay.

Tornadic damage began after the storm crossed Beard`s Creek off

the South River. Trees were first downed near the intersection of

Edgewater Drive and Park Avenue, just north of Lee Airport. The

tornado intensified as it moved east into central Edgewater, and

reached its peak EF-1 strength in the area of the community

bounded by Solomons Island Road (Route 2), Virginia Avenue, and

Ridge Avenue. In this area damage was blown in all directions.

Siding was torn from the wall of one home, and some roof flashing

was damaged on another. A commercial fence was blown down to the

north. However, most of the damage was to trees. Most of the trees

in this area had at least some large branches ripped from their

upper sections. About 10 trees in this wooded community were

entirely uprooted or snapped. Some of those trees fell into power

lines, and at least 2 power poles were snapped because of this. A

few homes and vehicles were damaged from falling trees and

branches.

As the tornado crossed Solomons Island Road, it weakened to an

EF-0 but continued to cause scattered tree damage with uprooted

or snapped trees that were thrown generally left of the tornado

track. Damage was noted on both sides of Warehouse Creek along

Leeland Road and South River Landing Road.

The tornado continued across South River and into Hillsmere

Shores. A large tree was uprooted on the The Key School soccer

field with numerous large branches strung across the 100-yard

field to the left of the track. One large branch caused damage

to the protective netting and metal framing attached to a

scoreboard situated on the west side of the soccer field. The

damage path continued east across Hillsmere Drive where a half

dozen 30-40 foot tall pine trees where uprooted and criss-crossed

in a northeast and southeast fashion.

Further northeast along Sunset Drive, scattered tree damage was

observed with several large trees snapped. One large tree was

uprooted and puncturing a roof resulting in water intrusion

inside the home. Additional scattered tree limb damage was

observed immediately to the east northeast with limbs noted thrown

to the left of the track.

As the tornado tracked east, scattered tree limb damage was

observed along Thomas Point Road and through the Arundel on the

Bay community. A few large trees were observed to be snapped and

uprooted along Cohasset Ave near Walnut Ave. Tree damage became

minor near the shoreline of the Bay between Linden Ave and Walnut

Ave.

While wind damage from this storm was examined between Crofton,

Davidsonville, and Riva, that tree damage was unidirectional,

largely oriented from west east, and falling generally in the

direction of the storm`s motion.

Wider weather episode

A disturbance (the remnant of convection from the day before over the Tennessee River Valley) triggered a few supercells and line segments from eastern West Virginia into the Washington/Baltimore metro areas.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (38.9480, -76.5695)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 908958. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.