A day after severe weather pushed through the D.C. area, the National Â鶹¹ÙÍø Service has surveyed the damage and concluded that there were two tornadoes Thursday in Maryland.
The weather service confirmed Thursday that a tornado touched down in Howard County, and it announced Friday that it was an EF-1 tornado. NWS confirmed an EF-0 tornado in Frederick County on Friday, as well.
The Howard County twister touched down near Glenelg, with estimated peak winds of 100 mph. A tornado with an EF-1 intensity has winds of 86 to 110 mph.
It was on the ground for around seven minutes and carved up a path of around 4.5 miles.
At one point, the weather service said the maximum width was 100 yards. In all, it snapped trees and caused “significant roof damage,” including to a county maintenance facility.
Thursday’s storms also caused power outages. As of 6:40 p.m. Friday, over 200 customers were still without power in Howard county.
It’s the second time in a week that Howard County has had a tornado.
A week earlier, an EF-1 twister damaged homes and uprooted trees. But while that tornado in Columbia injured one, yesterday’s didn’t hurt anyone.
Jim Lee of the National Â鶹¹ÙÍø Service said the damage from Thursday’s was concentrated, but wasn’t as big as last week’s.
“The path length of the one in Columbia last week was slightly longer — 5.5 miles — and the width was about 50% larger at 150 yards,” he said.
The Frederick County tornado touched down in the Ijamsville area between 2:48 to 2:59 p.m. on Thursday, and it had an estimated wind speed of 85 mph.
Brandon Fling, a meteorologist with the National Â鶹¹ÙÍø Service, said that similar damage in Spotsylvania county was most likely not caused by a tornado.
“It was most likely caused by straight line winds,” Fling said. “There were a number of trees that were uprooted. The winds were estimated at 70 to 85 mph, as the storms rolled through the area.”
