Tornadoes · United States · Maryland · 1996
F1 tornado, Rosemont to Taylorstown, Maryland, July 19, 1996
From Rosemont to Taylorstown, this F1 tornado ran 6.2 miles across Frederick and Loudoun counties on July 19, 1996, touching down at 2:20 PM CDT and reaching 200 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $130,000 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.
F040 to 72 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mphthis tornado
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
F4207 to 260 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- F1
- Date
- July 19, 1996
- Touchdown
- 2:20 PM CDT (19:20 UTC)
- Path length
- 6.2 miles (10.0 km)
- Path width
- 200 yards (183 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $130,000
- Counties
- Frederick and Loudoun counties
- Touchdown point
- 39.330, -77.630
- Lift-off point
- 39.320, -77.630
- Record number
- 1150
What the Weather Service recorded
The same supercell thunderstorm which produced the F2 tornado in Yarrowsburg (Washington Co) dropped a second tornado in Rosemont. This tornado would track through Brunswick, cross the Potomac River, then continue an additional 4 miles through extreme northern Loudoun Co before dissipating.The tornado first touched down in Rosemont, damaging numerous trees as it crossed state route 17 and moved into Brunswick. A service station's roof was partially damaged by a fallen tree. Many of the homes in Brunswick were protected by the trees and the steep sloping terrain towards the Potomac. At the bottom of this hill, just east of the Maryland state route 17/Virginia route 287 bridge, is a train station, the C&O Canal, and a campground. The tornado maximized at this location, flattening numerous large hardwood trees. Considering the number of trees that fell in this area it was amazing that none of the campers or C&O Canal visitors were injured or killed. The tornado was witnessed crossing the Potomac into northern Loudoun Co.The twister tracked over mainly rural property in Loudoun Co, maintaining F1 strength while crossing Quarter Branch Road. Most of the damage was to trees which were snapped, uprooted, or had large branches blown off. Siding, shingles, and some insulation were blown off a home in its path. A resident's automobile window was shattered. The tornado weakened at this point, producing F0 damage (mostly large limbs/small trees) for the next 2 miles before dissipating in Taylorstown.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
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
7.3 hours before the tornado, 46 km from the path. July 19, 1996.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 531 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -151 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 169 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 810 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 43 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 26 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 207 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 229 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 1.7
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 3.5 K/km
The surface observations
Frederick Municipal Apt (FDK), 24 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:00 UTC |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 1996 tornado in MarylandEvery tornado in Maryland since 1950Warnings in force in Maryland nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of July 19, 1996
19 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 19 | 10:20 AM EDT | F2 | Clarion, PA | 10.0 | 100 | $50,000 | ||
| July 19 | 10:45 AM EDT | F2 | Jefferson, PA | 27.4 | 200 | 6 | $200,000 | |
| July 19 | 12:10 PM EDT | F1 | Blair, PA | 1.5 | 880 | |||
| July 19 | 12:10 PM EDT | F2 | Cambria, PA | 6.0 | 100 | |||
| July 19 | 1:30 PM EDT | F0 | Bedford, PA | 5.0 | 50 | |||
| July 19 | 2:00 PM EDT | F0 | Fulton, PA | 2.0 | 50 | |||
| July 19 | 2:30 PM EDT | F1 | Franklin, PA | 3.0 | 50 | |||
| July 19 | 2:35 PM EDT | F1 | Adams, PA | 1.0 | 150 | |||
| July 19 | 3:02 PM EDT | F0 | Washington, MD | 2.0 | 75 | $10,000 | ||
| July 19 | 3:12 PM EDT | F2 | Washington, MD | 2.0 | 125 | $400,000 | ||
| July 19 | 3:25 PM EDT | F1 | Preston, WV | 0.2 | 50 | $10,000 | ||
| July 19 | 3:36 PM EDT | F1 | Montgomery, MD | 0.5 | 150 | |||
| July 19 | 3:42 PM EDT | F3 | Carroll, MD | 2.2 | 350 | 3 | $5.0 million | |
| July 19 | 2:48 PM CDT | F0 | Montgomery, MD to VA | 2.0 | 50 | $10,000 | ||
| July 19 | 3:55 PM EDT | F1 | Baltimore, MD | 1.2 | 50 | $70,000 | ||
| July 19 | 4:30 PM EDT | F0 | City of Baltimore, MD | 0.1 | 25 | |||
| July 19 | 3:04 PM MDT | F0 | Sherman, KS | 0.2 | 10 | |||
| July 19 | 6:00 PM EDT | F1 | Russell, VA | 3.6 | 50 | $200,000 | ||
| July 19 | 7:40 PM CDT | F0 | Franklin, MO | 0.1 | 50 |
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.