EF1 tornado, Avondale to Manchester, Maryland, February 7, 2020

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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF1

Date

February 7, 2020

Touchdown

8:03 AM EST (13:03 UTC)

Lifted

8:14 AM EST (13:14 UTC)

On the ground

11 minutes

Path length

10.3 miles (16.6 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$574,000

County

Carroll County

Touchdown point

39.562, -77.031

Lift-off point

39.661, -76.886

Record number

2002070703-01

8 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 105 mph.

• The tornado crossed I-70 and moved along Jesse Smith Road where more tree damage (uprooted and topped) was observed. Further north along the 12900 block of Jesse Smith Road, more significant tree damage occurred with numerous softwood trees snapped at two residences along a concentrated damage path.
• Tornado continued northeast over open country before crossing Old Annapolis Road near Ravenwood Road, producing extensive tree damage at several residences. Finally, the tornado caused more scattered tree damage as it crossed Bottom Road along Woodville Branch and continued into a wooded area.
• Avondale Ridge Community just west of Route 31 and southwest of Westminster. Clusters of snapped and uprooted trees were noted
• intermittent damage as it traveled northeast through downtown Westminster, roughly paralleling Ridge Road and Union Street. Trees were uprooted and snapped, some onto cars, roads and homes. Additionally, roofing was blown off, and shingle and siding damage was noted from the wind.

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

An area of low pressure formed over the area in response to an impressive longwave trough approaching from the west. A line of low-topped showers and thunderstorms formed along the system's cold front, leading to the formation of multiple tornadoes within the high shear-low CAPE environment. These tornadoes, along with straight-line winds from other storms, produced widespread damage across much of central and northern Maryland.

Early on Friday Feb 7th, a tornado touched down and skipped |northeast across central Carroll County MD causing erratic damage. |While there was scattered tree damage across southwestern Carroll |County, the first noted damage consistent with a tornado was in the |Avondale Ridge community just west of Route 31 and southwest of |Westminster. Clusters of snapped and uprooted trees were noted. From |there the tornado caused intermittent damage as it traveled |northeast through downtown Westminster, roughly paralleling Ridge |Road and Union Street. Trees were uprooted and snapped, some onto |cars, roads, and homes. Additionally, roofing was blown off, and |shingle and siding damage was noted from the wind. The tornado |continued up Hahn Rd and into the community along Sunshine Way, |where more snapped and uprooted trees were noted, as well as |residential fencing damage. A large recreational vehicle was blown |over. On adjacent property, the National Guard Recruiting Office had |tree damage. Additionally, a small military trailer was blown over. |The last known damage from this segment of the tornado was along |Lucabaugh Mill Rd, about 250 yards west of Route 27/Manchester Rd. |Most of the trees along this area were heavily damaged or downed. In |addition to ground surveying, there was an eyewitness report, as |well as a video of a small tornado posted to social media, both in |the Westminster area. Peak estimated winds were 90 MPH based on the |most heavily damaged areas.||The tornado lifted northeast of Westminster, and no damage was noted |for about 4 miles until it neared Manchester MD. Substantial tree |damage, with numerous large trees uprooted and snapped were noted |along Fort Schoolhouse Rd, from Albert Rill Road, to the northeast |about 400 yards. A home had a section crushed by a large falling |tree. As the tornado traveled northeast along Park Avenue, tree |damage became more scattered, and no tornadic damage was noted |northeast of MD Route 30 in Manchester.

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

17 minutes of warning. NWS LWX issued a tornado warning for this county at 12:46 UTC, 17 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 13:15 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 Marginal Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 12:57 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), 84 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 13:01 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 2020 tornado in MarylandEvery tornado in Maryland since 1950Warnings in force in Maryland nowThe forecast where you are

5 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.