The Mount Holly, New Jersey office of the National Weather Service, responsible for weather forecasts and warnings across most of New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania, Delaware, and northeastern Maryland has confirmed today that yet another tornado touched down in the Mid Atlantic on Friday. The EF-1 twister touched down on Friday near Asland, Delaware, at around 5:40pm. In addition to tornado damage, the severe cell also created straight line wind damage in the area.
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.
According to a storm survey released this afternoon, the tornado had maximum winds of 105 mph as it traveled 3.8 miles across northern Delaware, having a width of roughly 450 yards.
In addition to the tornado, the National Weather Service identified an area of straight-line wind damage separate and to the south of the tornado track “associated with the storm’s severe rear-flank downdraft.” The weather service those winds, which created almost as damage as the tornado did, were at about 95 mph.
