Tornadoes · United States · Maryland · 2004

F0 tornado, Solomons, Maryland, September 28, 2004

This F0 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Calvert County on September 28, 2004, touching down at 4:00 PM EDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $40,000 of property damage.

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
September 28, 2004
Touchdown
4:00 PM EDT (20:00 UTC)
Path length
0.3 miles (0.5 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$40,000
County
Calvert County
Touchdown point
38.330, -76.450
Lift-off point
38.330, -76.450
Record number
625

What the Weather Service recorded

The remnants of Hurricane Jeanne brought flooding to much of Maryland on the 28th. Rainfall amounts ranged from 3 to 6 inches. Numerous reports of stranded vehicles flooded Emergency Operations Command Centers. In Carroll county a group of inmates were rescued from the roof of a security van after it became submerged in a swollen creek. A total of 50 roads were closed in Maryland. Residents of the Mt. Savage Area in Cumberland, Allegany County were hard hit again as the stream wall was compromised and needed to be rebuilt, roads and basements were flooded. The remnant low pressure even spawned a waterspout on the Chesapeake Bay. The storm moved ashore and produced a weak tornado in Solomon, Calvert County. The tornado damaged the Solomon's Visitor Center, taking part of the roof and hurling it onto Route 2. The storm also toppled an old barn in the vicinity of the visitor's center.

A waterspout moved on shore on the 28th. The small tornado briefly touched down near Solomon. No injuries were reported and maximum winds ranged from 45 to 65 mph.

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

The warnings

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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:30 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.

Wallops Is Stn, VA (KWAL), 12:00Z

8.0 hours before the tornado, 102 km from the path. September 28, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Wallops Is Stn, VA at 12:00Z on 2004-09-28Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1005 joules per kilogram, CIN -7, lifted condensation level 483 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, Wallops Is Stn, VA at 12:00Z on 2004-09-28The 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 93 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 32 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
1005 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-7 J/kg
Surface CAPE
603 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
483 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
93 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
119 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.3
Supercell composite
2.1
0-3 km lapse rate
5.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Wallops Is Stn, VA (KWAL), 00:00Z

4.0 hours after it, 102 km from the path. September 29, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Wallops Is Stn, VA at 00:00Z on 2004-09-29Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 239 joules per kilogram, CIN 0, lifted condensation level 477 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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, Wallops Is Stn, VA at 00:00Z on 2004-09-29The 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 70 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 21 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
239 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
0 J/kg
Surface CAPE
600 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
477 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
70 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
97 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.4
0-3 km lapse rate
5.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Patuxent River Nas (NHK), 6 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
18:55 UTC7673150° 9 kt171001.7-RA BR
19:35 UTC75.273.4160° 12 kt191001+SHRA BR
19:55 UTC7673150° 19 kt271000SHRA BR
20:55 UTC7372210° 3 kt1000-RA BR
21:55 UTC7271240° 6 kt1000BR

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

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 September 28, 2004

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
September 284:58 AM EDTF1Pittsylvania, VA12.41001
September 283:30 PM EDTF0Camden, NJ2.517$100,000
September 284:14 PM EDTF2New Castle, DE5.0150$1.0 million

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.