EF1 tornado, Sunnybrook to Sweet Air, Maryland, June 3, 2021

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

June 3, 2021

Touchdown

4:51 PM EDT (20:51 UTC)

Lifted

4:55 PM EDT (20:55 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

2.2 miles (3.5 km)

Path width

120 yards (110 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$250,000

County

Baltimore County

Touchdown point

39.506, -76.569

Lift-off point

39.520, -76.532

Record number

2106031451-01

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 93 mph.

• Several trees facing different directions. Two large trees uprooted.
• Trees estimated to be 6-12” in diameter snapped.
• Looking southwest at trees laying to north-northwest.
• Large uprooted tree facing East

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

A pressure trough ignited numerous showers and thunderstorms, several of which produced localized damaging winds, hail, and a tornado.

A tornado touched down just north of the intersection of Merrymans Mill Road and MD-146 Jarrettsville Pike, where minor tree damage and snapped tree tops were observed.||The tornado continued moving northeastward producing more significant tree damage as it moved east of MD-146 Jarrettsville Pike towards the southern end of Overshot Court. The most extensive tree damage was noted along Overshot Court where multiple hardwood and softwood trees were uprooted and snapped. About 100 trees were damaged on Overshot Court, with many uprooted trees falling in a convergent, crossing manner and pointed to the west-to-north (generally along and left of the tornado track). At least 20 hardwood trees ranging between 10 and 20 inches in diameter were snapped off about 10 feet above the ground. Some of the uprooted trees also fell towards the east. A house on Overshot Court had siding damage, lost a portion of its eave on the northeast side of the house, had a shutter blown off, and a flagpole blown down. Siding from this house was found 120 yards to the northwest of the house.||Eyewitness accounts were taken from several residents along Overshot Court. They all relayed a similar story of relatively quiet conditions followed by a loud and incessant roaring sound, with reduced visibility due to heavy rain and swirling winds. One resident texted that they entered their basement when they heard the loud roar, with the timestamp of that text being 4:57 PM EDT. All residents noted the damage occurred quickly lasting well less than one minute.||As the tornado moved northeastward, it crossed wooded areas south of the Carroll Manor Recreation Council Building on MD-145 Sweet Air Road, where limited tree damage was noted. No damage was noted along Fox Run Court, but as the tornado crossed the 14000 block of Blenheim Road, several trees were damaged; several were uprooted and several were topped. One large 2-foot-in-diameter tree was uprooted facing toward the west, while a trampoline from a residence was blown over 200 yards toward the east, and several softwood pine trees were snapped. The large uprooted tree damaged a section of a covered porch.||The tornado produced only minor tree damage as it moved northeastward from Blenheim Road, and may have lifted briefly as it crossed MD-145 Sweet Air Road just west of Manor Road. As the tornado crossed Manor Road just north of MD-145 Sweet Air Road, minor tree damage was noted mainly with mainly a few large tree branches down.||Farther to the northeast, the tornado produced tree damage to a residence at the end of Cremson Drive off of Manor Road. A large hardwood tree about 20 inches in diameter was twisted off 10 feet up from the ground. A resident at this location described hearing a loud sound akin to a freight train and observed the tornado cause the aforementioned damage. The resident noted he was in his basement because of a Tornado Warning, with the damage occurring 5 minutes after his phone had alerted him to the Tornado Warning.||No further damage was noted to the northeast of the location on Cremson Drive, and the tornado likely lifted before crossing Maple Ridge Court.

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

0 minutes of warning. NWS LWX issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:51 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:00 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 18:50 UTC and running to 23:24 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 19:56 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), 100 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:49 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 2021 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.