New Jersey Tornado Confirmed

Red stars indicate tornado damage while yellow stars indicate straight-line wind damage from yesterday's storms. Image: Google/Weatherboy — Red stars indicate tornado damage while yellow stars indicate straight-line wind damage from yesterday’s storms. Image: Google/Weatherboy

The National Weather Service (NWS) in Mount Holly, New Jersey has confirmed that a tornado touched down in Mullica Hill.

A survey team from the NWS has preliminary determined that the damage sustained in Mullica Hill in Gloucester County around 8:18pm last night was caused by a tornado with wind speeds of EF0 intensity. The team also determined that damage further northeast, in an area just south of Deptford, was caused by tornadic winds of EF1 intensity. According to the NWS, it is likely the damage was caused by the same tornado but with a “discontinuous path”.

The scale that rates the intensity of tornadoes is known as the Enhanced Fujita Scale; it classifies tornadoes based on their wind speeds. EF-0 tornadoes have wind speeds 65 to 85 mph; 1 has winds 86 to 110mph; 2 has winds 111-135mph; 3 has winds 136-165mph; 4 has winds 166-200mph; 5 has winds in excess of 200mph.

The NWS team is now heading to the Blackwood area in Camden County to evaluate damage there.

Earlier, the NWS survey team investigated storm damage in Salem County. Based on that survey, the meteorologists determined that damage in Salem and Woodstown around 8pm was caused by straight-line winds in the range of 60-80mph and not by a tornado.