Last Wednesday evening, a brief EF-1 tornado touched down in Cooksville in Howard County during a line of severe storms, a National Weather Service survey later determined. The twister was on the ground for only about a minute, cutting a narrow path through the countryside and leaving concentrated damage to trees and some outbuildings. The survey results arrived in the wake of a broader round of damaging winds that pushed through central Maryland that night.
According to WBAL NewsRadio, the National Weather Service’s storm survey identified the Cooksville touchdown and provided preliminary estimates of its strength. WBAL’s coverage recapped the survey findings released this week.
What the NWS survey found
According to the National Weather Service, survey teams estimated peak winds near 90 mph, measured the tornado’s path at roughly 0.4 miles long, and found a maximum width of about 100 yards. Based on those observations, the agency rated the Cooksville touchdown an EF-1 on the Enhanced Fujita scale. The damage survey serves as the agency’s official classification of the event.
Wider wind damage across counties
The same round of storms also produced widespread straight-line wind damage in neighboring counties. WBAL NewsRadio noted that surveys in Frederick and Carroll counties showed 60 to 75 mph wind impacts from Woodsboro to Union Bridge and New Windsor, with narrow pockets of embedded 90-mph winds in Woodsboro. Those survey findings line up with numerous local reports of downed trees and scattered outages after the storms.
What residents should know
Residents in affected communities are urged to keep an eye on local emergency channels for any follow-up information and to steer clear of downed power lines or unstable trees until crews can finish clearing debris. For more on how to shelter, stay safe after a storm, and respond to tornadoes, see the National Weather Service tornado safety page. For county-level advisories and service updates, check the Howard County government site.
