Alert archive / New Jersey / Tornado Watches in 2026

Tornado Watch 495

July 18, 20264 states

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at Jul 18, 2026, 1:55 PM EDT for 4 states. It was in force for 6 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: Jul 18, 2026, 1:55 PM EDT (17:55 UTC)
Expired: Jul 18, 2026, 7:50 PM EDT
In force: 6 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center
Largest hail expected: 1.5 in
Strongest gust expected: 60 kt

All 44 counties

Kent County, DE, New Castle County, DE, Sussex County, DE, Anne Arundel County, MD, Baltimore County, MD, Calvert County, MD, Caroline County, MD, Carroll County, MD, Cecil County, MD, City of Baltimore, MD, Frederick County, MD, Harford County, MD, Howard County, MD, Kent County, MD, Montgomery County, MD, Prince George's County, MD, Queen Anne's County, MD, Talbot County, MD, Atlantic County, NJ, Burlington County, NJ, Camden County, NJ, Cape May County, NJ, Cumberland County, NJ, Gloucester County, NJ, Hunterdon County, NJ, Mercer County, NJ, Middlesex County, NJ, Monmouth County, NJ, Morris County, NJ, Ocean County, NJ, Salem County, NJ, Somerset County, NJ, Sussex County, NJ, Warren County, NJ, Berks County, PA, Bucks County, PA, Carbon County, PA, Chester County, PA, Delaware County, PA, Lehigh County, PA, Monroe County, PA, Montgomery County, PA, Northampton County, PA, Philadelphia County, PA

The radar

The Philadelphia radar (KDIX), 99 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 17:56 UTC, the scan nearest the moment this went out.

Open the radar archive at this moment

The archived warnings, watches and discussions in force at that minute are drawn over the scan, this one among them.

What SPC expected

The probabilities SPC published with the watch, for the watch area over its life.

Two or more tornadoes: 50%
One or more EF2 to EF5 tornadoes: 20%
Ten or more severe wind reports: 80%
One or more gusts of 65 knots or more: 10%
Ten or more severe hail reports: 20%
One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more: 10%
Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports: 95%

Warnings issued inside it

42 tornado, severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings for its counties while it was in force.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jul 18, 1:55 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LWX	Frederick, Washington	50 min
Jul 18, 2:12 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LWX	Frederick, Washington	33 min
Jul 18, 2:16 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	LWX	Frederick, Montgomery	17 min
Jul 18, 2:26 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	LWX	Carroll, Frederick, Howard, Montgomery	49 min
Jul 18, 2:33 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	LWX	Frederick, Montgomery	17 min
Jul 18, 2:34 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LWX	Carroll, Frederick	41 min
Jul 18, 2:36 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	PHI	Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth	4 hr
Jul 18, 2:41 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LWX	Frederick, Washington	28 min
Jul 18, 2:44 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	PHI	Bucks, Montgomery	4 hr
Jul 18, 3:00 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	LWX	Carroll, Frederick, Howard, Montgomery, Washington	49 min
Jul 18, 3:13 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PHI	Burlington, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean	47 min
Jul 18, 3:14 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	LWX	Frederick	92 min
Jul 18, 3:14 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning Considerable damage threat	PHI	Mercer	4 hr
Jul 18, 3:29 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LWX	Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Howard, City of Baltimore	31 min
Jul 18, 3:30 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PHI	Burlington, Camden	45 min
Jul 18, 3:31 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PHI	Burlington, Monmouth, Ocean	44 min
Jul 18, 3:36 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PHI	Burlington, Camden, Gloucester	39 min
Jul 18, 3:37 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LWX	Cecil, Harford	23 min
Jul 18, 3:44 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	PHI	Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean	4 hr
Jul 18, 3:45 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PHI	Chester	45 min
Jul 18, 3:47 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LWX	Montgomery	28 min
Jul 18, 3:54 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	LWX	Anne Arundel, Baltimore, City of Baltimore	54 min
Jul 18, 4:01 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LWX	Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Howard, City of Baltimore	29 min
Jul 18, 4:03 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PHI	Burlington, Ocean	42 min
Jul 18, 4:13 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PHI	Kent, Queen Anne's	62 min
Jul 18, 4:34 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	PHI	Ocean	4 hr
Jul 18, 4:46 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	PHI	Ocean	4 hr
Jul 18, 5:05 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PHI	Caroline, Talbot	40 min
Jul 18, 5:14 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PHI	Kent, New Castle	61 min
Jul 18, 5:26 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Destructive damage threat	PHI	Kent, Sussex	49 min
Jul 18, 5:45 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PHI	Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, Philadelphia	45 min
Jul 18, 5:49 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PHI	Monmouth, Ocean	41 min
Jul 18, 5:53 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	PHI	Caroline, Queen Anne's, Talbot	52 min
Jul 18, 6:16 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PHI	Sussex	44 min
Jul 18, 6:24 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PHI	Caroline, Talbot	20 min
Jul 18, 6:25 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	PHI	Caroline, Talbot	4 hr
Jul 18, 6:27 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	PHI	Sussex	33 min
Jul 18, 6:30 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PHI	Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Somerset	45 min
Jul 18, 6:40 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	PHI	Kent, Sussex	36 min
Jul 18, 6:54 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PHI	Sussex	22 min
Jul 18, 7:09 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PHI	Sussex	8 min
Jul 18, 7:13 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	PHI	Cape May	32 min

Discussions around it

SPC mesoscale discussions over the same counties from four hours before the watch to its end.

The nearest sounding before it

Brookhaven, NY (KOKX), launched 12:00Z, 5.9 hours before the alert went out and 216 km from the middle of its area. This is the routine balloon launch nearest before it, the air the forecaster had in hand, not a measurement taken for the alert.

Skew-T log-p

Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed.

Hodograph

The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km.

Mixed-layer CAPE: 5 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -238 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1076 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 45 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 131 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 157 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 1.0

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jul 18, 12:50 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Kent, New Castle, Sussex	85 min
Jul 18, 4:39 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Kent, New Castle, Sussex	96 min
Jul 18, 2:14 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Allegany, Carroll, Charles, Dorchester, Frederick, Garrett and 8 more	7 hr
Jul 18, 4:58 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Charles, Saint Mary's, Somerset, Worcester	62 min
Jul 18, 11:01 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Middlesex, Morris, Passaic and 4 more	89 min
Jul 18, 7:46 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bergen	59 min
Jul 18, 12:18 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Clarion, Crawford, Elk and 9 more	117 min
Jul 18, 1:02 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Adams, Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Bedford, Blair and 44 more	8 hr
Jul 18, 1:35 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Bradford, Lackawanna, Luzerne, Pike, Susquehanna, Wayne and 1 more	6 hr
Jul 18, 3:28 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Crawford, Erie, McKean, Warren	92 min
Jul 18, 6:47 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Clarion, Clearfield and 7 more	118 min

Nearby

Tornado Watches in New Jersey, 2026 Tornado Watches in Maryland, 2026 Tornado Watches in Pennsylvania, 2026 Every tornado watch in 2026

Sources

The product and its follow-ups from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service and Storm Prediction Center text; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.