On this date in 1998, an F4 tornado, on the 0-to-5 Fujita scale, ripped through the northern part of Frostburg, Maryland, leaving behind devastation. It was first tornado with such a high rating to strike Maryland. The storm damaged or destroyed 125 homes, according to the National Weather Service.
No fatalities or serious injuries were reported, which the Weather Service attributed to accurate warnings. “Everyone either got the NWS warning or heard or saw the tornado coming and headed to their basement,” the agency wrote in its storm summary.
Debris from the Frostburg twister was carried tens of miles. A bill stored in a basement filing cabinet of a house that was wiped off its foundation was found in Sterling, Virginia — about 100 miles away.
Numerous tornadoes struck Maryland, Pennsylvania and West Virginia that day, which the Weather Service also describes in its summary.
Here are other notables from this day:
- Average high: 81
- Average low: 63
- Record high: 97 (1925)
- Record low: 43 (1897)
- Record rainfall: 3.48 inches (1900)
