A cold front will stall near the Mississippi River Valley today with excessive rainfall bringing areas of flooding over parts of the region. Gusty winds and dry conditions will drive critical to extremely critical fire weather over portions of central and southern California through Thursday. Tropical Storm Watches have been issued for parts of the Florida Keys ahead of Tropical Cyclone Rafael. Read More >
...NWS DAMAGE SURVEY FOR 23 MAY 2019 HOWARD COUNTY TORNADO EVENT... Start Location...Clarksville in Howard County MD End Location...Columbia in Howard County MD Date...May 23 2019 Estimated Time...327 PM EDT Maximum EF-Scale Rating...EF1 Estimated Maximum Wind Speed...95 mph Maximum Path Width...150 yards Path Length...5.5 miles Beginning Lat/Lon...39.2072/-76.9451 Ending Lat/Lon...39.1790/-76.8484 * Fatalities...0 * Injuries...1 ...Summary... A line of showers and thunderstorms crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains around 2:30 PM 23 May 2019, then tapped into strong thermodynamics and wind shear, creating a Quasi-Linear Convective System (QLCS) that increased in intensity as it tracked southeast across central and southern Maryland, Washington DC, and northern Virginia. The QLCS spawned an EF1 tornado in Howard County MD between 3:27 PM EDT and 3:36 PM EDT, with a discontinuous damage path of 5.5 miles, moving east-southeast at an estimated 40 mph. This summary is based on a Storm Survey conducted Thursday evening by NWS Baltimore/Washington Weather Forecast Office staff, and analysis from the WSR-88D KLWX radar, and the FAA Terminal Doppler Weather Radars (TDWR) for Dulles International Airport, Washington Reagan National Airport, and Joint Base Andrews. The FAA TDWR at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport was out of service this day, thus it was not used in operations. The first evidence of tornadic damage was near the intersection of Brighton Dam Road and MD Route 108 in Clarksville. Several trees were uprooted in this vicinity with large branches pulled towards each other, and fell in multiple directions, except westerly. As the tornado moved east, more convergent tree damage extended on either side of Cedar Lane around Corina Court in Columbia. One eyewitness in this location who was interviewed saw the tornado knocking down trees, resulting in swirling debris. Most trees in this location were uprooted, but a few were snapped. Trees here were both softwood and hardwood. One tree fell into the roof of a house. Another resident in this area reported getting the wireless emergency alert on their phone, followed moments later by strong winds, which knocked down large trees. Tree damage was also noted along Shaker Drive between Seneca Farm Road and Wayover Way, where numerous large trees were uprooted, with a couple of trees snapped, falling to the north. The most significant damage noted was near the 9400 block of Patuxent Woods Drive, where a grove of hardwood and softwood trees were snapped about midway up their trunks, falling haphazardly. The roof of a nearby office building lost part of its roof, which blew towards the east. Trees were down further to the east, but it is likely that this was due to straight-line winds as radar analysis showed the tornado vortex broadening rapidly. There were other towns in Howard County in close proximity to the tornado that experienced significant wind damage, including Savage and Highland. However, from radar observations and conceptual models of tornadoes spawned by quasi-linear convective systems, it was determined that the wind damage in these locales were likely due to straight-line winds. Strong straight- line winds can produce damage equivalent to EF0 and EF1 tornadoes. The National Weather Service Baltimore/Washington Weather Forecast Office would like to thank the Howard County Office of Emergency Management for their assistance in the Storm Survey. EF Scale: The Enhanced Fujita Scale classifies tornadoes into the following categories: EF0...65 to 85 mph EF1...86 to 110 mph EF2...111 to 135 mph EF3...136 to 165 mph EF4...166 to 200 mph EF5...>200 mph * The information in this statement is preliminary and subject to change pending final review of the event and publication in NWS Storm Data. $$ Lee/Hofmann