Tornadoes · United States · Maryland · 2013
EF0 tornado, Sparrows Pt, Maryland, June 10, 2013
This EF0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Baltimore County on June 10, 2013, touching down at 3:44 PM EDT and reaching 75 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $10,000 of property damage.
The rating scale
Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
EF2111 to 135 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.
EF3136 to 165 mph
Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
EF5over 200 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.
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
- EF0
- Date
- June 10, 2013
- Touchdown
- 3:44 PM EDT (19:44 UTC)
- Lifted
- 3:45 PM EDT (19:45 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 0.2 miles (0.3 km)
- Path width
- 75 yards (69 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $10,000
- County
- Baltimore County
- Touchdown point
- 39.262, -76.593
- Lift-off point
- 39.265, -76.593
- Record number
- 1306101344-01
What the Weather Service recorded
A warm front moved through the region and the Mid Atlantic was located in the warm moist sector. Convergence led to numerous showers and thunderstorms to develop in an atmosphere with high shear. Heavy rain, damaging winds and tornadoes were observed.
A metal building structure in the south Locust Point Marine Terminal was damaged when a waterspout over the Patapsco River came onshore, transforming to a small tornado from approximately 3:44 to 3:45 PM EDT on June 10, 2013.||The metal building structure had a portion of its northeast roof peeled up, wrapping it back and folding it over the east-facing side of the building. Additionally, a small trailer on wheels was demolished as it was propelled to the northwest about 60 feet from its position on Cinder Blocks. An air conditioning unit which was permanently installed in the wall of an office on the north facing side of the building in proximity to where the roof damage occurred was blown-in. A large amount of debris was seen plastered to a east-facing chain link fence on the north side of the parking lot.||Areas to the north Marine Terminal were also surveyed, and no further damage was found.
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.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:06 UTC and running to 02:21 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17:00 UTC | 02:30 UTC | Small Craft Advisory | LWX |
| 18:06 UTC | 02:21 UTC | Tornado Watch | LWX |
| 19:31 UTC | 19:57 UTC | Marine Warning | LWX |
| 23:47 UTC | 01:15 UTC | Marine Warning | LWX |
| 01:47 UTC | 02:19 UTC | Marine Warning | LWX |
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 16:31 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.
Phillips Aaf/Abe, MD (KAPG), 12:00Z
7.7 hours before the tornado, 48 km from the path. June 10, 2013.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 111 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -63 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 262 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 596 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 36 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 12 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -2 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 64 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- -0.0
- Supercell composite
- -0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.1 K/km
The surface observations
Baltimore Inner Harbor (DMH), 2 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17:54 UTC | 80 | 74 | 1013.9 | |||
| 18:54 UTC | 79 | 73 | 1012.2 | |||
| 19:54 UTC | 76 | 73 | 1011.5 | |||
| 20:54 UTC | 79 | 74 | 1011.5 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Sterling radar (KLWX), 84 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:44 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18:54 UTC | FLOOD | 2 Wsw Damascus | Montgomery, MD | WATER ABOUT 1 FOOT DEEP FLOWING ACROSS ROADWAY NEAR INTERSECTION OF STRINGTOWN RD AND KINGS VALLEY RD |
| 19:26 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 1 N Fork | Baltimore, MD | FUNNEL CLOUD SIGHTED AS WELL AS BRANCHES AND TREES DOWN |
| 19:26 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 N Fork | Baltimore, MD | FUNNEL CLOUD SIGHTED AS WELL AS BRANCHES AND TREES DOWN |
| 19:28 UTC | TORNADO | 1 Sw Fork | Baltimore, MD | EF0. MAX WIND 80 MPH. PATH LENGTH 0.5. MAX PATH WIDTH 100 YARDS. SIX TREES UPROOTED. SWIRLING DEBRIS REPORTED BY EYWITNESSES. TREE DAMAGE AND FENCE DAMAGE NEAR METHODIST CHURCH. |
| 19:28 UTC | TORNADO | Fork | Baltimore, MD | EF0. MAX WIND 80 MPH. PATH LENGTH 0.5. MAX PATH WIDTH 100 YARDS. SIX TREES UPROOTED. SWIRLING DEBRIS REPORTED BY EYWITNESSES. TREE DAMAGE AND FENCE DAMAGE NEAR METHODIST CHURCH. |
| 19:30 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 Sw Fork | Baltimore, MD | SEVERAL LARGE PINE TREES UPROOTED RT 147 AND GLEN ARM ROAD. |
| 19:30 UTC | TORNADO | Fork | Baltimore, MD | TREE AND STRUCTURAL DAMAGE NEAR FORK METHODIST CHURCH PER EYEWITNESS. |
| 19:44 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 2 Nne Brooklyn Park | Baltimore City, MD | FUNNEL CLOUD NEAR INTERSECTION OF I-895 AND FRANKFURST AVE |
| 19:44 UTC | TORNADO | 1 Sw Fells Point | Baltimore City, MD | EF0. MAX WIND 80 MPH. PATH LENGTH 0.2 MILES. MAX WIDTH 75 YARDS. METAL ROOF DAMAGED AT LOCUST POINT MARINE TERMINAL. TRAILER DEMOLISHED. AC UNIT BLOWN IN. |
| 20:00 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | Baltimore Inner Harbor | Baltimore City, MD | WATER WAS OBSERVED UP TO THE HOODS OF CARS IN THE 500 BLOCK OF SOUTH CHARLES STREET. |
| 20:15 UTC | FLOOD | 2 Ssw Dundalk | Baltimore, MD | EIGHT TO 12 INCHES OF WATER AT INTERSECTION OF DUNDALK AVE. AND BULLNECK RD. CLOSING THE INTERSECTION. |
| 20:22 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | Baltimore Inner Harbor | Baltimore City, MD | WATER WAS OBSERVED UP TO THE HOODS OF CARS IN THE 500 BLOCK OF SOUTH CHARLES STREET. |
| 21:00 UTC | FLOOD | 1 Ne Baltimore | Baltimore City, MD | HIGH WATER REPORTED ON HARFORD ROAD IN BALTIMORE CITY. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2013 tornado in MarylandEvery tornado in Maryland since 1950Warnings in force in Maryland nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of June 10, 2013
7 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 10 | 1:20 PM EDT | EF0 | Greenville, SC | 1.3 | 80 | $5,000 | ||
| June 10 | 1:40 PM CDT | EF2 | Logan, KY | 13.9 | 325 | 4 | $502,000 | |
| June 10 | 3:24 PM EDT | EF0 | Baltimore, MD | 0.5 | 100 | $1,000 | ||
| June 10 | 4:47 PM EDT | EF0 | New Castle, DE | 0.9 | 150 | |||
| June 10 | 6:13 PM EDT | EF0 | Amelia, VA | 0.1 | 25 | |||
| June 10 | 8:05 PM EDT | EF1 | Onslow, NC | 0.6 | 50 | $500 | ||
| June 10 | 9:01 PM EDT | EF0 | Saint Mary's, MD | 0.3 | 50 | $500 |
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.