The National Weather Service has confirmed one classified tornado touched down in Montgomery County on Wednesday evening, according to a report released Thursday night.
At least six people suffered minor injuries, but no one was killed when the tornado ripped through Montgomery County on Wednesday night, according to county officials. According to the National Weather Service, most of the damage occurred in downtown Gaithersburg east of City Hall, where at least seven houses were condemned.
Wednesday’s tornado brought estimated peak winds of 105 miles per hour and ranked an EF-1 on the The Enhanced Fujita Scale, which ranks the severity and damage of tornadoes. The scale ranges from 1-5, with 5 being the highest. The tornado’s path had a width of 125 yards and traveled for 12 miles.
According to the National Weather Service, the tornado arrived in Poolesville at 7:14 p.m. on Wednesday evening, having formed from a mini-supercell thunderstorm in Leesburg, Virginia. Funnel clouds were spotted near John Poole Middle School, and the first damage surveyed was at Tudor Farm along Whites Ferry Road, where about two dozen pine trees were snapped or uprooted, and the doors of a barn collapsed.
The tornado lifted and dropped down again near the 16000 block of Darnestown Road. About a dozen softwood trees were snapped and uprooted, causing the temporary closure of Darnestown Road for a period of time overnight, the report said. The tornado traveled along White Ground Road, snapping and debarking pine trees, before proceeding east across Seneca Creek State Park.
The tornado reportedly moved east-to-east directly adjacent to the south of the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commissions (WSSC) Seneca Water Resource Recovery Facility, snapping the facility’s power lines, and then snapping branches that blocked parts of the Great Seneca Highway.
The storm then entered the city of Gaithersburg, snapping several trees along Desellum Avenue north of Gaithersburg High School. A large limb fell on top of St. Martin of Tours Church at the intersection of South Summit and South Frederick avenues. A housing development directly east of the Gaithersburg City Hall was “particularly hard-hit, with seven houses being condemned from trees and branches falling onto them,” the National Weather Service reported.
Five occupants were transported to the hospital after a large oak tree was uprooted and fell into a house on Dogwood Drive. After leaving the Gaithersburg area, the storm traveled east toward Columbia, the report said.