F1 tornado, Halfway to Maugansville, Maryland, June 16, 1998

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 16, 1998

Touchdown

6:21 PM EDT (22:21 UTC)

Path length

5.0 miles (8.0 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$200,000

County

Washington County

Touchdown point

39.620, -77.730

Lift-off point

39.650, -77.720

Record number

1212

The approach of a cold front combined with impressive jet stream energy at upper-levels of the atmosphere acted on unstable air near the surface to produce a major severe weather episode across northern Maryland for the second time in three weeks. The combustible situation produced a mesoscale low pressure system which focused the most substantial severe which focused the most substantial severe weather in north-central Maryland. The episode featured five tornadoes, nearly a dozen instances of wind damage, and several large hail occurrences.The most concentrated damage was in and around Hagerstown. Three separate tornadoes dropped from the same parent thunderstorm within moments of each other. The first two caused considerable property damage between the town of Halfway and Hagerstown. The third produced a track of mainly tree and underbrush damage from just south of the Washington County Regional Airport to the Maryland/Pennsylvania state line. The first twister, which developed three miles south of Halfway, toppled and uprooted dozens of trees and blew down wires in the Tammany Manor neighborhood, as well as at the Hickory Elementary School. The tornado saved its worst for the Valley Mall, where a portion of the roof was torn off and damage was noted at an anchor store's loading dock. Another adjacent store had an electrical fire.More commercial damage occurred a few blocks north, along Wesel Boulevard, where the roofs of several vacant buildings were torn off. Canopy tents at the Wal-Mart department store were flattened; the store's garden center had its greenhouse destroyed; many pieces of equipment, and plants and flowers, were also damaged. An awning at a local automobile dealership was ripped off. This tornado dissipated just southeast of the Washington Co. Detention Center - but not before knocking down trees along Interstate 81, temporarily closing one of the two travel lanes.Shortly before the first tornado lifted, a second touched down in the Greenbury Hills subdivision of Halfway, uprooting trees and ripping siding from a few homes. This twister, on the ground for five miles, caused much of its damage over the western portion of Hagerstown before dissipating. At the Potomac Center, 44 trees were uprooted, and another 40 were damaged. Dozens more were snapped and uprooted at the nearby Carroll Heights/Hyde Park subdivision; trees were also uprooted and snapped at the Rest Haven Cemetery, with at least four fallen trees knocking over headstones. Hundreds more trees were damaged at both the Hagerstown Business College and the nearby Fountain Head Country Club, whose golf course was closed for two days to clean up the debris.While eastern Washington Co was being pummelled, another cell was producing wind damage from southwestern through central Frederick Co. Several trees were snapped and uprooted, and some homes sustained damage to shingles, siding, and porch supports, in Middletown. More damage was noted between Jefferson and Buckeystown - another microburst - witnessed by residents as a rolling black cloud. Damage included numerous trees snapped and uprooted, a destroyed cinder block outbuilding, and a damaged garage door. Farther to the northeast, more trees were snapped, including one which fell onto a house near Libertytown. A small tornado touched down just northeast of Frederick city, taking down about a half-dozen trees near the intersection of Gas House and Linganore Roads. Intense lightning caused problems as well. The radio transmission tower which serves the Frederick Co emergency operations center was knocked out, with damage reported to radio and telecommunications equipment. Several homes were struck in the area, as was a fire department vehicle.Severe weather propagated eastward into Carroll and Baltimore Cos. Damaging winds snapped and uprooted many trees in Westminster, including one which fell onto a home. Two trees crashed through residents' roofs along state route 31 near Westminster. Large hail the size of tennis balls caused scattered damage to homes and vehicles in Finksburg. The heavy rains associated with the stronger cells caused flash flooding across portions of the Big Pipe Creek watershed in northern Carroll Co; several roads were temporarily closed near Taneytown where the Bear Branch overflowed its banks. One road was washed out. Lightning struck at least one home and barn, causing small fires and minor damage.Just west of the Baltimore/Carroll line (1 mile southwest of Fowblesburg), a small tornado knocked down several trees, some which fell onto a house, a camper, and a shed. Sheet metal was stripped from the shed; the trees were severely twisted, according to the resident. More trees or large limbs fell in Reisterstown (Baltimore Co) and in northern Howard Co.As events were winding down across northern Maryland, another severe storm moved out of east-central Virginia and into lower southern Maryland, causing damage in counties that had been struck the previous evening. Trees and large limbs fell across portions of northern and eastern Charles Co, but the storm apparently saved its worst for St Mary's Co, where three barns were destroyed and numerous trees were snapped or uprooted along the state route(s) 239/520 corridor near Milestown. In Calvert Co, more trees/large limbs fell, and a portion of roof and some siding were stripped from one home.Thousands of Maryland residents lost power yet again due to the storms; a total of at least 25,000 customers in the Baltimore Gas and Electric and Allegheny Power service areas had no electricity during the height of the storm.

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

13 minutes of warning. NWS LWX issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:08 UTC, 13 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:40 UTC.

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 11:03 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.

Hagerstown Regional (HGR), 8 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Sterling radar (KLWX), 76 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:20 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 1998 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.