F0 tornado, Newburg, Maryland, May 26, 2001

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.

Rating

F0

Date

May 26, 2001

Touchdown

3:24 AM EDT (07:24 UTC)

Path length

1.2 miles (1.9 km)

Path width

40 yards (37 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$10,000

County

Charles County

Touchdown point

38.370, -76.980

Lift-off point

38.380, -76.950

Record number

171

A thunderstorm formed over the Potomac River between King George County, Virginia and Charles County, Maryland around 3:00 AM EDT on the 22nd. This thunderstorm produced a tornado over the Potomac River just before coming ashore near Clifton on the Potomac just north of the Route 301 bridge. An employee at the Route 301 bridge toll booth just east of the shoreline reported seeing a waterspout form just offshore and north of the Governor Harry W. Nice Bridge. The waterspout came ashore at the Aqua-Land Marina less than one quarter mile north of the bridge. A boathouse at the marina was hit by the twister and lost nearly half of its exposed 150 foot roof. Six boats beneath the roof were damaged by fallen debris. In addition, trees were downed in and along the access road to the Aqua-Land campground. Next, the tornado moved east-northeast across the southern portion of the Clifton on the Potomac subdivision where it downed or snapped several trees. Very little damage was reported to homes. A survey team found a path of downed trees that continued east-northeast across Route 301 near the Crain Memorial Travel and Visitors Center to just south of the intersection of Route 257 and Mount Victoria Road in Newburg. The tornado apparently dissipated near Mount Victoria Road. The F1 tornado was on the ground for 1.2 miles and was estimated to be 40 yards wide. Strong winds also accompanied the storm and trees were downed at the intersection of Route 301 and 234 about 4 miles north of Newburg. The thunderstorm weakened after it exited the Newburg area, but was of sufficient strength as it moved over La Plata to produce pea sized hail around 3:40 AM EDT. When the storm moved over Waldorf, marble to nickel sized hail fell.

A waterspout came ashore at Clifton on the Potomac and reached Newburg before dissipating.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

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 06:19 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 live radar over the trackEvery 2001 tornado in MarylandEvery tornado in Maryland since 1950Warnings in force in Maryland nowThe forecast where you are

8 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.