Tornadoes · United States · Maryland · 2004

F0 tornado, Wolfsville, Maryland, May 25, 2004

This F0 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Frederick County on May 25, 2004, touching down at 5:56 PM EDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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.

  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.

The record

Rating
F0
Date
May 25, 2004
Touchdown
5:56 PM EDT (21:56 UTC)
Path length
0.5 miles (0.8 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Frederick County
Touchdown point
39.620, -77.600
Lift-off point
39.650, -77.580
Record number
957

What the Weather Service recorded

Thunderstorms spawned tornadoes in Washington and Frederick Counties. Other strong thunderstorms also produced wind and hail damage across North Central Maryland and the Metropolitan areas of Baltimore and Washington DC. Downed trees and power lines caused power outages for over 100,000 customers. Penny to golfball size hail damaged cars and gardens. Lightning strikes started a number of house fires according to Fire and Rescue Personnel. Maryland State Police responded to several accidents blamed on the pelting hail and ponding of water on roadways.

A very weak tornado touched down about one-half mile from the Frederick and Washington County line.The storm remained over rural areas and rugged terrain.

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

The warnings

27 minutes of warning. NWS LWX issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:29 UTC, 27 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:30 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
20:52 UTC21:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLWX
21:29 UTC22:30 UTCTornado WarningLWX

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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 20:00 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 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

9.9 hours before the tornado, 78 km from the path. May 25, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Washington/Dulle, VA at 12:00Z on 2004-05-25Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 19 joules per kilogram, CIN -224, lifted condensation level 1534 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Washington/Dulle, VA at 12:00Z on 2004-05-25The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 35 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 23 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
19 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-224 J/kg
Surface CAPE
4 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1534 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
35 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
46 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Washington/Dulle, VA (KIAD), 00:00Z

2.1 hours after it, 78 km from the path. May 26, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Washington/Dulle, VA at 00:00Z on 2004-05-26Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1367 joules per kilogram, CIN -32, lifted condensation level 973 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Washington/Dulle, VA at 00:00Z on 2004-05-26The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 200 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 40 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
1367 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-32 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1737 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
973 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
40 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
200 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
340 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.9
Supercell composite
6.8
0-3 km lapse rate
6.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Sterling radar (KLWX), 74 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:57 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.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
21:35 UTCHAIL 0.753 N Halfway MdWashington, MD
21:45 UTCTSTM WND GST 604 W HagerstownWashington, MD
21:55 UTCTORNADOLeitersburgWashington, MDPOSSIBLE TORNADO. SEVERAL BUILDINGS WITH ROOF DAMAGE AND PARTIAL BUILDING COLLAPSES.
22:15 UTCTSTM WND DMGTaneytownCarroll, MDMANY TREES DOWNED COUNTYWIDE.
22:23 UTCHAIL 1.75Harpers FerryJefferson, WV
22:59 UTCHAIL 0.88FrederickFrederick, MD

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2004 tornado in MarylandEvery tornado in Maryland since 1950Warnings in force in Maryland nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 25, 2004

10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 255:15 PM EDTF2Crawford, PA7.050$3.5 million
May 255:37 PM EDTF1Washington, MD1.5100$250,000
May 256:10 PM EDTF0Venango, PA0.3100
May 255:23 PM CDTF0Franklin, IL0.550
May 255:45 PM CDTF0Scurry, TX2.050
May 256:49 PM EDTF0Loudoun, VA0.550$1,000
May 255:55 PM CDTF0Bollinger, MO0.550
May 256:45 PM CDTF0Mitchell, TX1.2125
May 257:12 PM CDTF0Mitchell, TX0.175
May 2511:25 PM EDTF1Lancaster, VA0.110$20,000

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.