8/7/23 Manchester MD Tornado

At approximately 4:54pm on August 7th, 2023, an EF1 tornado touched down in extreme northeastern Carroll County near the town of Manchester. There was no official survey done by the National Weather Service in Sterling Virginia, however corroborating radar and ground data in combination with the storm survey just over the county line done by the National Weather Service in State College, confirms that the Black Rock PA tornado actually started in NE Carroll County MD. 

Along the path of the tornado, the damage consisted primarily of downed trees, with numerous trees uprooted near the intersection of Wine Road and Bachmans Valley Road. These uprooted trees were blown to the SE, NE, and E. Near White Oak Road, numerous pine trees had their tops snapped off, being blown towards the path of damage.  These trees were blown down to the E and NE. Further to the northeast prior to crossing Hanover Pike, the tornado broke the tops off a row of trees near a farm. Along Meadowview drive, several large trees had large sections of branches snapped and some trunks snapped as well. As the tornado tracked further to the NE, trees were blown down in multiple directions in a forested area near the intersection of Tracey's mill road and Melody drive. Additional trees were uprooted in multiple directions by the tornado along Blackrock road prior to crossing into PA. Due to the severity of the tree damage, the tornado was likely an EF1 with winds around 100mph, and a path length of about 5.25 miles before crossing into Black Rock PA. 

Aside from the damage, the radar data alone strongly supports and actually confirms that this was a tornado and not straight line winds. First, we have a hook echo that developed along the leading edge of the bow echo. This hook echo correlates with a strong area of rotation on storm relative velocity. In addition, there was a noticeable spike in the NROT, again indicating strong rotation. And to confirm this all, a tornado debris signature was observed with a TDS height of approximately 10,000 feet. This indicates that a tornado did touch down and resulted in significant damage. Luckily, the majority of this tornado damage was tree damage and not structural. 


​DISCLAIMER: This article does not reflect the opinion of the entire team. This was independently written by Senior Forecaster Jack