EF0 tornado, Reels Mill to Monrovia, Maryland, May 30, 2019

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

   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 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. 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

EF0

Date

May 30, 2019

Touchdown

2:48 PM EDT (18:48 UTC)

Lifted

2:59 PM EDT (18:59 UTC)

On the ground

11 minutes

Path length

6.5 miles (10.5 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$22,000

County

Frederick County

Touchdown point

39.383, -77.382

Lift-off point

39.357, -77.265

Record number

1905301248-01

9 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.

• Numerous large trees uprooted and large branches snapped
• Numerous trees uprooted around south parking area. Large branches snapped. 911 center employees in Public Safety building there saw rotating debris as the tornado passed. No wind damage to building.
• Numerous trees uprooted along Reichs Ford Rd. Large branches snapped.
• Few trees uprooted and branches snapped.

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

On the morning of May 30th a surface front was positioned across Pennsylvania, with a surface low positioned west of Chicago, Illinois. Through the day the surface |low moved eastward along the frontal boundary, reaching western Pennsylvania by late in the afternoon. The low then quickly pushed eastward off the NJ coastline by late in the evening, with a cold front crossing the region. In addition, two disturbances aloft moved across the area, one during the mid to late afternoon hours, and another in the evening. Out ahead of the front, warmth and humidity allowed for the development of moderate instability and that coupled with moderate wind shear aloft set the stage for two rounds of scattered showers and thunderstorms, some of which became severe. Two tornadoes occurred across central Maryland.

An EF-0 tornado, with estimated maximum wind speeds of 85 mph, occurred on Thursday May 30th, 2019 near Frederick, Maryland. The 6.5 mile path of damage extended from the eastern suburbs of Frederick, through Ijamsville, to Monrovia. The tornado touched down near the Monocacy River at approximately 2:48 PM EDT (1:48 PM EST), just west of the Frederick County Public Safety Training Facility. As it moved east over the county training facility and property, it snapped and uprooted many trees, but no structural damage was reported to the building from the wind. The tornado tracked a little south of due east, uprooting and snapping trees along Reichs Ford Road. As it crossed into Ijamsville, trees were uprooted and large branches were snapped along Ijamsville Road and Mussetter Road near the Methodist church. Continuing east, trees were noted uprooted and large branches snapped in multiple directions along a path that crossed Prices Distillery Road, Whiskey Road just south of Whiskey Creek Golf Course, a new residential community along Ed McClain Road, and |Green Valley Road before lifting at approximately 2:59 PM EDT (1:59 PM EST). Damage estimates were provided by the Frederick County Division of 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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 18:02 UTC and running to 20:21 UTC.

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, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:28 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 Sterling radar (KLWX), 46 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:45 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 2019 tornado in MarylandEvery tornado in Maryland since 1950Warnings in force in Maryland nowThe forecast where you are

2 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.