EF1 tornado, Fountain Mills to Plane Number Four, 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

7:44 AM EST (12:44 UTC)

Lifted

7:50 AM EST (12:50 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

6.7 miles (10.8 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$340,000

County

Frederick County

Touchdown point

39.343, -77.276

Lift-off point

39.416, -77.192

Record number

2002070644-01

11 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.

• Darnestown Road (RT 28) between White Ground Road and Sugarland Road where several softwood trees were toppled and fell across utility lines on Darnestown Road.
• A large barn used to house horses lost all of its roof while an adjacent open-air pole barn was flattened. Several small outbuildings were destroyed. Bleachers at a horse showing facility were overturned. A metal frame windmill tower was toppled. Numerous trees, both hardwood and softwood, were either uprooted or snapped.
• It then crossed Martinsburg Road near a farmhouse where several large trees were uprooted and a farmhouse lost many shingles. No damage was noted past the farm house.
• Initial damage was to several structures at a farm in the 11000 block of Fingerboard Road, where a machine shed and barn were flattened. A silo was also heavily damaged. Tree damage was noted near the intersection of State Routes 75 and 80.

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.

Staff from NOAA's National Weather Service Baltimore/Washington |Weather Forecast Office located in Sterling, VA performed a survey|of storm damage that occurred in eastern Frederick County MD near|Monrovia and New Market. This survey, coupled with radar analysis|from the KLWX WSR-88D radar and an FAA Terminal Doppler Weather |Radar (TIAD), concluded that a tornado rated EF1 on the Enhanced |Fujita Scale impacted portions of eastern Frederick County MD.||Initial damage was to several structures at a farm in the 11000 |block of Fingerboard Road, where a machine shed and barn were |flattened. A silo was also heavily damaged. Tree damage was noted |near the intersection of State routes 75 and 80. A large swath of |tree and utility line damage was noted along Lynn Burke Rd near |Old Bartholows Rd just south of I-70.||The tornado crossed I-70 and moved along Jesse Smith Rd where|more tree damage (uprooted and topped) was observed. Further |north along the 12900 block of Jesse Smith Rd, more significant |tree damage occurred with numerous softwood trees topped at two |residences along a concentrated damage path. ||The tornado continued northeast over open country before crossing|Old Annapolis Rd near Ravenwood Rd, producing extensive tree |damage at several residences. Finally, the tornado caused tree |damage as it crossed Bottom Rd along Woodville Branch and |continued into a wooded area that was not surveyed due to |impending darkness.

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

7 minutes of warning. NWS LWX issued a tornado warning for this county at 12:37 UTC, 7 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 13:00 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 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), 50 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 12:41 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.