EF2 tornado, Long Corner to Cover, Maryland, November 2, 2018

1. EF065 to 85 mph

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. EF186 to 110 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   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. 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.

5. EF4166 to 200 mph

   Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

6. 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.

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

EF2

Date

November 2, 2018

Touchdown

8:19 PM EDT (00:19 UTC)

Lifted

8:26 PM EDT (00:26 UTC)

On the ground

7 minutes

Path length

5.5 miles (8.8 km)

Path width

400 yards (366 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$900,000

Counties

Howard and Carroll counties

Touchdown point

39.348, -77.171

Lift-off point

39.405, -77.109

Record number

1811021819-01

12 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LWX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 100 mph.

• Highs Diary Story canopy partially blown off
• Home Goods and TJMaxx (drone footage available)

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

A dynamic low pressure system tracked through the Mid-Atlantic states on the evening of November 2nd. A squall line developed along the cold front, and while instability was limited, deep and low level shear were strong enough to support the development of a quasi-linear convective system. The most intense portions of the system were able to generate localized severe damaging winds and tornadoes.

A tornado touched down in extreme northwestern Howard County, Maryland, approximately 1 mile south of Interstate 70/US-40/Baltimore National Pike at 8:19 PM EDT. Several wooden power poles were snapped along Penn Shop Road just east of MD-27/Ridge Road, indicative of winds over 100 MPH. The path continued northeastward into Carroll County.

A tornado moved northeastward from Howard County and entered Carroll County around 8:20 PM EDT on the evening of November 2nd. Several trees were downed along Bennett Road. Numerous trees were downed in the Pheasant Ridge community just south of MD-144/Frederick Road, and several mobile homes were heavily damaged. Several power poles were snapped along MD-144/Frederick Road.||As the tornado crossed Interstate 70/US-40/Baltimore National Pike, numerous trees and branches were downed in the roadway and on vehicles, which appeared to have been pulled off the roadway by the winds. No injuries were reported.||The tornado proceeded to move into the retail area of Mt. Airy, where a canopy over the gas pumps at High's Dairy Store was partially torn off, and the TJ Maxx roof was lifted up and partially removed. There were also numerous trees snapped and uprooted in a convergent manner behind the shopping center to near the Mt. Airy water tower. In the immediate path, virtually no trees were left undamaged, indicative of winds over 100 MPH.||The tornado continued northward from this point, where several outbuildings at the Knills Farm Market just east of MD-27/Ridge Road were severely damaged or completely destroyed, including a metal silo which twisted and collapsed. Nearby along Watersville Road, several more power poles were snapped purely from wind (not from trees falling on power lines). On either side of the farm, virtually all trees in the tornado's path were downed in a convergent manner, including at a residence along Watersville Road, with some showing signs of bark being stripped by the wind. This was one area where maximum winds are estimated to have been near 120 mph.||The tornado continued northeastward, with several residences experiencing shingle and roof damage/removal along Arrowwood Circle, and downed numerous trees and power lines, consistent with winds around 90 MPH.||Numerous hardwood trees, virtually all in the tornado's path, were snapped with signs of stripped bark along the 6000 block of Runkles Road. At Snell's Greenhouses, water was completely removed from a pond, and several greenhouses were destroyed. A nearby home weather station in the tornado's path just to the northeast measured a wind gust of 112 mph. Based on this, it is likely the tornado's maximum winds again approached 120 mph in this area. This occurred at around 825 PM EDT, when the FAA's Terminal Doppler Weather Radar near Washington Dulles International Airport showed it's strongest rotational signature.||The last evidence of tornadic damage was observed on Gillis Falls Road where a few trees were uprooted in convergent fashion just east of Runkles Road. Radar imagery from the FAA's Terminal Doppler Weather Radar near Washington Dulles International Airport showed the tornadic velocity couplet dissipate just north of Gillis Ford Road at about 826 PM EDT.||The damage estimate was provided by Carroll County Emergency Management.

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.

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 Marginal Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:58 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.

Frederick Municipal Apt (FDK), 21 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Sterling radar (KLWX), 54 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:16 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.

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

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

The live radar over the trackEvery 2018 tornado in MarylandEvery tornado in Maryland since 1950Warnings in force in Maryland nowThe forecast where you are

7 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.