Tornadoes · United States · Maryland · 1990

F0 tornado, Baltimore County, Maryland, June 8, 1990

This F0 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Baltimore County on June 8, 1990, touching down at 5:35 PM EDT and reaching 13 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $500 to $5,000 of property damage.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. F040 to 72 mphthis tornado

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. F173 to 112 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. F2113 to 157 mph

    Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

  4. F3158 to 206 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. F4207 to 260 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. F5261 to 318 mph

    Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

  7. Unrated

    The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

The record

Rating
F0
Date
June 8, 1990
Touchdown
5:35 PM EDT (21:35 UTC)
Path length
0.3 miles (0.5 km)
Path width
13 yards (12 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$500 to $5,000
County
Baltimore County
Touchdown point
39.580, -76.620
Record number
641

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 06:33 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

The air that afternoon

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Washington/Dulle, VA (KIAD), 12:00Z

9.6 hours before the tornado, 97 km from the path. June 8, 1990.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Washington/Dulle, VA at 12:00Z on 1990-06-08Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 54 joules per kilogram, CIN -251, lifted condensation level 1053 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Washington/Dulle, VA at 12:00Z on 1990-06-08The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 62 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 34 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
54 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-251 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1053 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
34 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
62 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
239 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Washington/Dulle, VA (KIAD), 00:00Z

2.4 hours after it, 97 km from the path. June 9, 1990.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Washington/Dulle, VA at 00:00Z on 1990-06-09Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2490 joules per kilogram, CIN -15, lifted condensation level 1183 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Washington/Dulle, VA at 00:00Z on 1990-06-09The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 113 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 46 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
2490 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-15 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2916 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1183 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
46 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
113 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
203 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.9
Supercell composite
10.1
0-3 km lapse rate
7.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1990 tornado in MarylandEvery tornado in Maryland since 1950Warnings in force in Maryland nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 8, 1990

20 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 88:00 AM ESTF0Wells, IN0.113$50 to $500
June 85:00 PM EDTF2York, PA1.0601$50,000 to $500,000
June 85:11 PM EDTF0Richland, OH1.020$500 to $5,000
June 86:35 PM CDTF1Gray, TX1.490
June 87:26 PM CDTF0Lyon, KS0.110
June 87:27 PM CDTF0Gray, TX1.280
June 87:30 PM CDTF0Carson, TX0.870
June 87:47 PM CDTF0Carson, TX1.170
June 87:49 PM CDTF0Carson, TX0.960
June 88:04 PM CDTF2Carson, TX2.6300$50 to $500
June 88:10 PM CDTF0Johnson, KS0.110
June 89:15 PM EDTF0Somerset, PA0.530
June 88:15 PM CDTF0Greenwood, KS0.550
June 88:23 PM CDTF0Carson, TX1.060
June 88:46 PM CDTF0Carson, TX1.280
June 88:55 PM CDTF1Wheeler, TX2.2110$5,000 to $50,000
June 89:05 PM CDTF0Carson, TX1.260
June 89:20 PM CDTF0Gray, TX1.870
June 89:35 PM CDTF1Henry, MO0.250
June 89:50 PM CDTF2Wheeler, TX1.6200$5,000 to $50,000

What this means

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.