EF1 tornado, Lovett Arpt to Elkton Cecil Arpt, 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

9:39 AM EST (14:39 UTC)

Lifted

9:40 AM EST (14:40 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

1.1 miles (1.7 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Cecil County

Touchdown point

39.650, -75.820

Lift-off point

39.650, -75.800

Record number

2002070839-01

4 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS PHI, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 104 mph.

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 moving out of the Southeast began to explosively intensify as it moved over the mid-Atlantic. On the morning of February 7, the eastern mid-Atlantic was briefly within the warm sector of the deepening low. An environment of extreme wind fields was present, and temperatures and dew points rose enough for sufficient instability to develop to sustain convection. A line of low topped but intense convection developed, and despite producing little thunder and lightning it produced a long swath of wind damage over the mid-Atlantic, along with a few tornadoes between Virginia and Maryland.

An EF-1 tornado briefly touched down near the Elk Mills Quarry in |Cecil County, Maryland. The tornado uprooted and snapped numerous |softwood trees just east and north of the quarry near the |intersection of Elk Mills Road, Appleton Road, and Fletchwood Road. |A few hardwood and softwood trees were uprooted on nearby |residential properties. The tornado continued east along Fletchwood |Road passing over some industrial buildings toward the Pine Hill |Apartment complex. At the apartment complex, numerous pine trees |were uprooted or snapped. The tornado then dissipated as it |continued east away from the apartment complex. Thankfully, no |significant structural damage occurred and no injuries or fatalities |occurred as a result of this tornado.

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

0 minutes of warning. NWS PHI issued a tornado warning for this county at 14:39 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 14:47 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 Dover AFB radar (KDOX), 97 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 14:38 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.