F1 tornado, Dundalk, Maryland, November 8, 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

November 8, 1996

Touchdown

3:45 PM EST (20:45 UTC)

Path length

3.8 miles (6.1 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

1

Property damage

$750,000

County

Baltimore County

Touchdown point

39.270, -76.520

Lift-off point

39.270, -76.520

Record number

830

A persistent, strongly-rotating thunderstorm which originated in Charles Co finally collapsed in southeastern Baltimore Co, dropping a tornado that skipped along a nearly 4 mile path through Dundalk. There were dozens of eyewitnesses to the event; one storm chaser produced a short videotape confirming the twister.The tornado tracked from Soller's Point through residential and industrial portions of Dundalk, dissipating along the Back River east of North Point. The damage in Soller's Point included three homes with stripped gutters; bent siding, downed telephone cable, and aluminum facia lifted from a church roof. Immediately north along Dundalk Ave., two old storefront roof awnings were torn off, one from a liquor store and the other from a laundromat. A small portion of cinder block wall was destroyed at the laundromat.The twister proceeded northeast, causing an estimated $250,000 in damage at a marina. Thirty-five small boats were damaged, but only two severely. A warehouse on the property lost 1/3 of its aluminum siding, including an entire wall. The storm appeared to skip at this point; damage from Lynch Cove to Bear Creek was limited to a few fallen trees.Damage picked up once again in North Point. At North Point Village, an aluminum porch was blown off a home, exposing siding. Some insulation from the home was tossed into nearby trees. Six large trees were snapped or uprooted in this portion of the neighborhood. Less than 1/2 mile to the northeast, a five-ton unsecured office trailer was flipped over, causing an arm injury to a 19 year-old man inside.The swath of damage continued into the industrial section of North Point. A cinder block wall collapsed at the rear of the Ivy Steel and Wire plant. Aluminum skirting across the top of the building was blown off, allowing a portion of the wall to fall. Damage to the plant was estimated at $75,000. The twister then struck Container Depot Industries, shifted and/or damaging 25 to 30 shipping containers. An adjacent marsh field's grass was flattened in a cyclical, snake-like pattern. Damage to the containers was estimated at $10,000.

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 06:00 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 Sterling radar (KLWX), 90 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:45 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

14 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.