Tornado

A decade ago tomorrow, the worst tornado in Maryland history struck La Plata, killing three people and flattening buildings with 261 mph winds. The F5 twister, the top of the scale for tornado intensity, left a plate of fried chicken on the counter of a fast-food restaurant but tore off two of the building's walls and its roof, according to one Baltimore Sun report. It left one resident's mailbox standing, waiting for more mail in front of a house that was torn from its foundation, resting on some bushes.

I ask the tea party, as it campaigns for extreme cuts in government services, would it cut the National Weather Service? If it had been cut, who would have let the people in Oklahoma know that they needed to get into shelters to be safe from tornadoes? How many more would have died if they had not been warned? Throughout the country, funds are being cut from the budgets of first responders. In Oklahoma, New Jersey and other areas just this year ravaged by storms, budgets are being cut. Who would save our children, our people, if not for the first responders?

FROSTBURG -- When word of tornadoes crackled across police scanners in this small town tucked in the hills of Western Maryland, Dwayne Bittner did not hesitate. He gathered his wife and two children and ran to the basement.They made it with no time to spare.Before they reached the bottom of the stairs, a twister struck their three-bedroom home. It lifted the house from its foundation, tore off a mud room and sent a pair of French doors flying through the house and out the front windows."It sounded like a whoosh wind," Bittner said, swinging his arms to emphasize the point.

A tornado of epic proportions hit Oklahoma, which claims to have the finest weather forecasting in the nation specifically because of the tornado threat ("Tornado in Oklahoma leaves dozens dead," May 21). These forecasters note when tornadoes are imminent and attempt to save lives through warning. The day after the first tornado hit, and when all the conditions for more tornadoes remained a danger, the children were sent to school like always. Compare this to how Maryland shuts down the state merely on the rumor of snow.

The tornado-like storm that whipped through Northeast Baltimore Wednesday morning stripped away roofs, windows and even roofs, leaving apartments as open as a child's dollhouse. Residents awoke to find cars jumbled in a heap, furniture scattered across lawns and wooden roofs that had sailed hundreds of feet away — in some cases, across Northern Parkway. How does a tornado, essentially a whirling column of air, create enough force to tug a roof off a building and send it hurtling like a hockey puck?

COLLEGE PARK - A tornado blazed a 10-mile-long path of destruction through Central Maryland at rush hour yesterday afternoon, killing two Howard County sisters and injuring dozens of people while ripping the roofs off buildings and flinging cars through the air. The storm - whose winds were clocked as high as 206 mph - touched down in College Park at about 5:20 p.m. and tore north into Beltsville, Laurel and Savage, flipping trucks off of roads, shredding...

Storms with winds reported at or near 80 mph blew through the area between 1:30 and 2 a.m. causing damage and electricity outages. WBAL-TV was reporting that the National Weather Service was working to confirm reports of a possible tornado in the 2200 block of Fleetwood Ave.

A tornado touched down in the Largo area of Prince George's County during storms that passed through the region Friday, the National Weather Service confirmed Monday. Meteorologists had previously confirmed another tornado in Northern Virginia. The Largo tornado touched down at 7:26 p.m. in the Marlboro Ridge neighborhood, uprooting trees, blowing out windows and garage doors and walls. The tornado traveled about half a mile, lasting less than a minute, according to the weather service.

As part of Maryland Severe Storms Awareness Week, a statewide tornado drill is taking place Wednesday at 9:45 a.m . The alert will be issued over NOAA weather radios at that time, with an all-clear message to follow at 10 a.m. All Maryland schools are being encouraged to participate, and businesses, families and individuals can develop their own tornado plans and join in, too. Tornado plans should involve heading to the lowest small...

A tornado with 80 mph winds moved across 1.2 miles near Jarrettsville on Friday night, National Weather Service officials confirmed Monday. The tornado ranked as an EF-0 on the Enhanced Fujita scale, according to a report the weather service's Baltimore/Washington forecast office posted to its website Monday afternoon. That classification is the weakest on the EF scale and includes tornadoes with gusts of 65 to 85 mph lasting at least three seconds. Damage discovered when weather service officials surveyed the area included a gazebo being lifted off the porch of a house and dropped on top of the house's roof and large trees being uprooted or snapped in half, according to a report posted on the weather service website Tuesday.

Amazon's hosting service has been approved for government use, a formerly obscure math lecturer has received hard-won praise for an incredible accomplishment, and Oklahoma City is working to dig out from a devastating tornado. Welcome to your online trends report for Tuesday, May 21, 2013. The massive tornado that hit the Oklahoma City region yesterday is believed to have killed at least 51 people, as of this writing. That number is expected to rise as more victims are dug out of the rubble.

What causes tornadoes? In Tornado Alley, where a tornado killed at least 24 people in Moore, Okla., Monday, the disasters are relatively frequent when moist air from the Gulf of Mexico meets dry, cool air from the Rocky Mountains. Instability caused by such differences in air temperatures fuels even common thunderstorms. But in the case of the Moore tornado, the severity was increased because of a particularly strong blast of cool air from the jet stream mixing with warm Gulf air that built up over the weekend, explained AccuWeather.com's Henry Margusity . The moist air moves in low to the ground, without any geographic obstructions over the flat Midwest.

Forecasters are predicting more tornadoes to strike parts of the central U.S. Monday, in areas still recovering from severe weather outbreaks that hit Sunday. An area home to more than 5 million people, stretching from northern Texas, through parts of Oklahoma and Arkansas to southern Missouri, faces elevated risks of severe weather and tornadoes, according to the Storm Prediction Center . The most significant risk of tornadoes is expected in southeastern Oklahoma. A much larger area, from central Texas up to the Great Lakes, could see severe storms Monday.

A trained weather spotter reported a funnel cloud sighting in Roland Park on Saturday afternoon, while severe wind damage occurred in Harford County as storms passed through the region, according to the National Weather Service. The funnel cloud sighting was reported at 4:24 p.m. along Lake Avenue near Roland Avenue. No tornado has been confirmed, and the weather service has not received any reports of damage that appeared to have been caused by a tornado, said Brian Lasorsa, a meteorologist in the weather service's Baltimore/Washington forecast office.

In the wake of the deadly bombings in Boston and the fertilizer plant explosion in West, Texas, the Maryland State Board of Education on Tuesday approved new emergency planning guidelines meant to help local school systems better prepare for disaster. "It's very timely that we're here today, given the events that occurred last week," said Chuck Buckler, executive director of the student services and strategic planning branch of the Maryland State Department of Education. The 218-page document updates safety guidelines developed a decade ago and emphasizes the creation of individualized plans that address multiple hazards, from school shootings to tornadoes.

A tornado touched down in the Largo area of Prince George's County during storms that passed through the region Friday, the National Weather Service confirmed Monday. Meteorologists had previously confirmed another tornado in Northern Virginia. The Largo tornado touched down at 7:26 p.m. in the Marlboro Ridge neighborhood, uprooting trees, blowing out windows and garage doors and walls. The tornado traveled about half a mile, lasting less than a minute, according to the weather service.

The National Weather Service confirmed Friday that a tornado passed through the Lake Shore neighborhood east of Pasadena in Anne Arundel County during Thursday's storm. Officials at the National Weather Service said the tornado reached maximum winds of 80 mph, with a path as wide as 200 yards and as wide as one mile long, passing within a half mile of Chesapeake High, Chesapeake Middle and Bodkin Elementary schools. The tornado formed at about 9:46 p.m. over Cornfield Creek, knocking a sailboat on its side and then moving toward Milburn Circle in Lake Shore, where it knocked down several trees.

A tornado watch and flash flood warning are in effect for the Baltimore region, with heavy rain and gusty winds expected through the night. The tornado watch area includes all of central and southern Maryland and is effective through 2 a.m. Thursday. A tornado watch means conditions are favorable for tornado development but does not mean any have or will occur. The Baltimore area is also under a flash-flood warning, coastal flood advisory and a wind advisory through early Thursday.

Update: The National Weather Service cancelled the tornado watch for all counties west of the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland around 8:30 p.m.   The Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., had been eyeing storms that have lumbered through the Plains states this week to reach the East Coast Friday afternoon and evening. In the mid-Atlantic, the "environment is conducive for both damaging winds and a tornado threat. " Conditions could "prove favorable for storms to become organized with the potential for supercells," the forecasters wrote.

A tornado watch and flash flood warning are in effect for the Baltimore region, with heavy rain and gusty winds expected through the night. The tornado watch area includes all of central and southern Maryland and is effective through 2 a.m. Thursday. A tornado watch means conditions are favorable for tornado development but does not mean any have or will occur. The Baltimore area is also under a flash-flood warning, coastal flood advisory and a wind advisory through early Thursday.