Delmarva Tornadoes

Over the weekend I received an email asking “When was the last time Delmarva has been hit with a major tornado.” I thought this was a great question and learned a lot about the history of tornadoes in Delmarva. Here are some facts I found from: http://www.bethanyopcchurch.org/severe/tornado_data.html. This information is from 1950-2005.

-There have been 90 F0, 111 F1, 40 F2, 4 F3 and no F4 or F5 tornadoes in Delmarva.
-The average track length of the tornadoes is 2.42 miles and the average width is 63 yards.
-There have been 6 fatalities and 192 injuries.

I also searched all of the tornado reports available on Wikipedia (there are a lot of fun tornado facts, something to check out if you are interested) for the years following 2005.


-The only tornado I found in the state of Maryland was the following, but it does not really fall in the category “Delmarva”: July 16, 2007: An EF1 tornado left a 4-mile (6 km) long damage path in Hartford County, Maryland. Numerous homes were damaged and roads shut down due to fallen trees and power lines.

Some other tornado facts for our area:
-On August 25, 1814, the War of 1812 Washington D.C. tornado killed several British soldiers occupying the city.

-From Wikipedia, The Rye Cove, Va. tornado outbreaks from May 1-2, 1929: “The Rye Cove, VA tornado was the deadliest among a potent tornado outbreak that swept from southwest to northeast along the Appalachian mountains from Alabama to Maryland. This outbreak is notable as one of the worst to affect the states of Maryland and Virginia, and as one of the few observed, intense tornado outbreaks affecting Appalachia. Producing 13 deaths, the Rye Cove tornado is the deadliest in Virginia history[1].”

Since we are talking about tornadoes, I posted the Enhanced Fujita Scale at the top of this blog. The EF Scale was presented by the National Weather Service at the American Meteorological Society conference in Atlanta, Ga. during February of 2006. This scale is still fairly new and an upgrade to the familiar Fujita Scale.

-Just another fun fact involving the EF Scale. According to Wikipedia the first time an EF5 will measured with this new scale was May 4, 2007 during the Greensburg, Kan. tornado.