june 5th historic tornado outbreak in central maryland

Lets first talk about why we had so many tornadoes Wednesday night. We had been monitoring the threat of tornadoes all day, and posted at 11:23am that a few tornadoes would be possible. But this event certainly overperformed. The reason was due to a warm front that stalled over our area for a few hours.

There's a saying in the weather business, "NEVER TRUST A WARM FRONT", and this is exactly why. If it stalls in an area with the amount of instability that we had like it did Wednesday night, that is a recipe for disaster. Unfortunately this is not what models were showing, and so we could not have predicted this to occur. Warm fronts often bring extreme amounts of low level wind shear that models cant pick up on. The sounding at BWI showed remarkable amounts of wind shear in the low levels and much stronger instability than what any models had shown (seen in the image above). It was one of the most classic tornado profiles I have ever seen in this region. 
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Above is a map of all of the confirmed tornadoes and their approximate tracks. Data was gathered from the storm surveys completed by NWS Sterling. In total, 9 tornadoes have been confirmed throughout Carroll, Montgomery, Howard, Washington and Baltimore counties as well as Baltimore City.
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This is the largest tornado outbreak in Maryland since 2012 not related to a tropical system.

More detailed information for each of these tornadoes can be found below. Blue tracks and triangles equal EF0 damage, and green tracks and triangles indicate EF1 damage. Note, the Eldersburg track should be green as it was rated EF1. In addition, the Boonsboro tornado was rated EFU for unknown, so its track is grey.​

Eldersburg to gamber 

At approximately 7:59pm, an EF1 tornado touched down in eastern Carroll county on the NW side of Eldersburg. Major tree damage and some structural damage occurred along its path. The tornado had peak winds estimated at 110mph, was on the ground for more than 4 miles, and had a peak width of about 100 yards.

Damage was first noted on Tanglewood Drive and Covington Court where trees were blown down and "pointed in different directions" according to NWS. As the tornado continued northeast, more significant damage occurred on Barthollows road and Sarah Drive where dozens of trees sustained significant damage. Some trees fell onto at least one house in this area. Damage to a home in the form of loss of siding and shingles occurred near Sun Berry court. On cherry tree lane, hundreds of trees were blown down and snapped at several residences with total mow downs of forest sections noted in some areas.

On the north side of Liberty reservoir, a large swath of softwood trees were snapped and uprooted. Most trees in the path of the tornado at this location were blown down or severely damaged. Some debarking of trees also occurred. At Faith Family Church in Gamber, Foots Forecast Viewer Maria was kind enough to give me a tour of the damage. She showed me hundreds of downed trees behind the church, many of which were over 2 feet in diameter. Her house also sustained shingle and flashing damage and a large walnut tree was uprooted in her yard. The tornado continued NE and destroyed a barn on Providence lane as well as removing half the roof off a nearby house.

While the official rating was EF1, it was only 1 mph away from being an EF2. This is the strongest tornado of this outbreak and the strongest to hit Carroll county since 2018 when an EF2 struck Mount Airy.

ARBUTUS TO west baltimore city

At 8:45pm, an EF1 tornado with winds of 105mph touched down in Arbutus and tracked 3.3 miles into western Baltimore City. The tornado was 175 yards wide which by Maryland standards is quite large!

The tornado touched down near the interchange of I-95 and I-195 as several people reported a tornado on the ground. Several trees were downed and twisted on Selford road indicative of tornadic damage. On its track towards Friendship road, it downed numerous trees and powerlines including a large oak tree that was snapped about half way up according to NWS. Additional damage including more downed trees and powerlines occurred between Francis avenue and Ingate Terrace where trees were sheared off. Beyond this point, the tornado increased in width before downing more trees and large branches on Carville avenue and Oregon avenue. The tornado lifted briefly before touching back down in Halethorpe.

The most significant damage occurred at the Amazon HQ building where doors were blown out, and pieces of roofing and an awning were damaged as well. Additional tree damage occurred behind the LA-Fitness building as well. Along Hilltop avenue and West Patapsco avenue, additional tree damage was observed. The tornado continued east and snapped and twisted numerous trees along Neiman avenue. Moderate structural damage occurred at Overflo Warehouse LLC before the tornado dissipated at 8:57pm.

columbia 

At 8:31pm, an EF1 tornado touched down in Columbia impacting the Long Reach Village Center. This tornado had winds of 95mph, a path length of 1 mile, and path width of 75 yards. 

The first indication of tornado related damage was on Phelps Luck Drive. A concentrated area of tornado damage occurred on High Tor Hill where it intersects with Tamar drive. This is where numerous trees were snapped, sheared off, and uprooted. Some trees fell onto homes and cars which resulted in structural damage. Roofing was also peeled off a townhouse in this area. In total, there were about 2 dozen damaged trees in this section of Columbia. The tornado continued to move ENE for a short time before lifting. But not before resulting in additional damage on Hayshed lane and Waterloo road where more trees were snapped and uprooted. The tornado lifted at 8:33pm. 

ELMER-POOLESVILLE

At 7:01pm, an EF1 tornado touched down in Elmer making a 6.6 mile long path across west central Montgomery County through Poolesville. The tornado was a high end EF1 with maximum winds of 10mph and a maximum width of 

The first damage was note by Montgomery county EMA as multiple trees down just east of the Potomac river including on Elmer school road and River road. Trees and branches were blown down on West Willard Rad as well. At Tudor Farm, about 2 dozen pine trees were snapped and uprooted, and barn doors were reported to  have collapsed. Further east towards the end of the tornadoes path, significant tree damage occurred on White Ground road where several trees were snapped and some were debarked indicative of winds over 100mph. The tornado lifted at about 7:21pm. 

Gaithersburg-olney

At 7:29pm, video recording of a tornado passing over Indian Grass drive was recorded. This marks the start of this EF1 tornado that contained winds of 95mph, a path width of 150 yards, and path length of 15.23 miles. 

Minimal damage occurred to trees on Highway 119 with branches being reported down. Further east, the damage was much more significant with hardwood trees being snapped along George Street north of Gaithersburg High School. Huge oak trees were uprooted, and one fell onto a house on Tulip drive, and at least 1 large tree was uprooted on Rolling Road. According to NWS, there were also several reports of downed branches in the Olney area as well as video footage of the tornado on the ground. In sandy spring, the fire department reported numerous trees down in the area. And along Westlawn drive in Ashton, numerous trees were down blocking the road. This is where the tornado was believed to have lifted at about 8:03pm.

Middle River

A very brief but still quite strong tornado touched down in Middle River at 8:57pm. The tornado was about 110 yards wide and traveled 1 mile with winds of 105mph making this an EF1 tornado. 

The first instances of damage was reported near Martin State Airport in the Williams Estates area which is a mobile home park. Most of the damage consisted of the removal of underpinning from single and double wide mobile homes. This also included mobile homes on Wagon Train Road and Roundup Road. In addition to this structural damage, several instances of tree damage occurred as well. The most significant tree damage happened on Dahlia lane and Roundup Road. It was in this area that more significant structural damage occurred including windows being blown out on several mobile homes. One one mobile home, peices of a shed were impaled into the side of the house due to the force of the wind.

Similar damage was noted further downstream with more underpinning and shingle damage occurring as the path widened and the tornado began to weaken. It was after this point that the tornado dissipated at approximately 8:58pm.

boonsboro

At approximately 5:41pm, a brief EF-U tornado was seen dissipating over an open field. As no damage was observed, this tornado was rated EF-U where U stands for unknown. Had any damage occurred, it likely would have been very minor with winds less than 60mph in this tornado. Because there was no damage, no official wind speed or path width could be determined. 

CANTON AREA OF BALTIMORE CITY

At 9:01pm, a very brief EF-0 tornado touched down in southeastern Baltimore City near Canton. The tornado had maximum winds of 70mph, a path width of 90 yards, and was only on the ground for less than half a mile. 

The tornado made its touchdown near Anchorage Promenade Park confirmed via video footage. Damage was fairly sparse including small branches thrown around on Hudson Street and south Luzerne avenue. At the Hatton senior center, several large branches were snapped and trashcans were blown around. And along Foster avenue, a large tree was blown down and an awning was heavily damaged. After bending a stop sign, the tornado lifted before hitting the Highlandtown Neighborhood.

westminster near the airport

A brief EF0 tornado touched down on the north side of the Carroll County Airport at about 7:42pm with peak winds of 80mph, a width of 100 yards, and a path length of just 1/3 of  a mile.

The tornado touched down near the airport and moved to the NNE into the Bear Branch Neighborhood. The damage as fairly brief consisting of downed branches and trees but only minor structural damage. Trees and branches were blown down on Chris lane, Kalten road, and Miller road as well as on Route 97. The heaviest damage occurred at a house on Chris Lane which you can see in the picture above. The tornado lifted 1 minute after touching down, lifting at 7:43pm.

OTHER AREAS:

ATHOLTON AREA: Minor damage occurred on a few roads in the Atholton area of Columbia including downed tree branches and damage to the athletic field at the high school. While this may have been indicative of a brief tornado touchdown, there was not enough evidence to support this. For this reason, NWS did not confirm a tornado in this area as the damage was too spotty and not concentrated.

WEST FREINDSHIP AREA: Earlier in the afternoon, a weak but noticeable area of rotation may have produced a very brief and weak tornado near West friendship. When I went to look for damage, it consisted of a few downed trees and branches, but there was no clear tornadic signature in the damage. For this reason, it is unlikely that NWS will be able to confirm a tornado touched down here.

This is not official NWS information. Please refer to official NWS surveys for official details. The above information in the "other areas" section of this article is our opinions and does not reflect that of the NWS.

PHOTOS FROM VIEWRS AND FORECASTER JACK

We want to give a shout out to the incredible meteorologists at NWS Sterling for issuing the advanced tornado warnings ahead of these storms. This no doubt prevented any fatalities from occurring. We  also want to give a shoutout to all our local broadcast meteorologists at WBAL, WJZ, WMAR, FOX5, WUSA9, WJLA, and NBC4. They all did an amazing job covering this event that frankly caught us all off guard. 

Final note: All information rom each individual tornado that was confirmed came from the NWS surveys which can be found here https://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/wx/afos/p.php?pil=PNSLWX&e=202406131533

​Forecaster Jack and the CMD team