F1 tornado, Mt Airy, Maryland, June 4, 1996

1. F040 to 72 mph

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

2. F173 to 112 mphthis tornado

   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.

Rating

F1

Date

June 4, 1996

Touchdown

8:05 PM EDT (00:05 UTC)

Path length

1.0 miles (1.6 km)

Path width

65 yards (59 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$150,000

County

Frederick County

Touchdown point

39.380, -77.220

Lift-off point

39.380, -77.200

Record number

475

A severe thunderstorm produced wind damage along a 10-mile swath from eastern Frederick Co into extreme southern Carroll Co. Downburst wind damage, in the form of 100 snapped or blown down trees, was noted along Green Valley Road (state route 75) near Green Hills. An eyewitness in the area observed hail between 1 and 1 1/2 inches in diameter. As the storm moved northeast towards Mt Airy, scattered tree damage and damage to trim on homes was also noted. One home had it's carport blown off, and 3 others sustained fence damage.Approximately 4 miles southwest of Mt Airy a gustnado touched down in the Molesworth Hills subdivision, causing extensive damage to trees, moderate damage to five homes, and minor damage to about 10 other residences. One home had a garage wall blown out. A new home had a garage door blown inward, siding and roofing torn away, and a picture window blown in. Two sheds were also damaged. Three homes sustained roof damage from fallen trees, which also damaged two automobiles. The tornado also totalled a late-model pickup truck, and blew out the windshield of a van. An eyewitness noted the gustnado, "between 100 and 200 feet in width," heading towards him. He took cover in a nearby ditch and escaped unharmed.In Mt. Airy (Carroll Co), straight-line winds blew down three large maple trees (1-2 feet in diameter), parts of which landed up to 20 feet away. A few more trees were felled near the library.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 16:31 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 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.

The Sterling radar (KLWX), 51 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:07 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

The live radar over the trackEvery 1996 tornado in MarylandEvery tornado in Maryland since 1950Warnings in force in Maryland nowThe forecast where you are

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

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