Tornado, Monmouth
- When
- August 13, 12:00 PM EST
- Where
- Monmouth County, Highlands
- Rating
- F0
- Path length
- 1.2 mi
- Path width
- 75 yd
- Property damage
- $50,000
- Coordinates
- 40.400, -73.980
Tornado in New Jersey, August 13, 1997
A F0 (Fujita Scale) touched down briefly in Middletown Township and Highlands Borough before it went into Sandy Hook Bay and dissipated. 2 miles and the path width about 75 yards.
Where it happened
Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.
- Tornadoes
- Tropical storms and surge
- Floods
- Wind
- Hail
- Winter weather
- Heat and drought
- Cold
- Fire, smoke and dust
- Marine and coastal
- Other
The toll
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $50,000
- Crop damage
- None recorded
- Events
- 1
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
What happened
The episode as NWS PHI wrote it up.
A F0 (Fujita Scale) touched down briefly in Middletown Township and Highlands Borough before it went into Sandy Hook Bay and dissipated. The path length was about 1.2 miles and the path width about 75 yards. The tornado damaged several cars and homes, and uprooted and/or snapped numerous trees, but no injuries were reported. The tornado touched down in northeastern Middletown Township near Pape Drive and Navasink Avenue. It moved northeast and uprooted a tree on Williams Street that crushed three parked cars. Another car was burned when it came in contact with downed wires on Buttermilk Valley Road. A tree also crushed an awning in the Shadow Lane Mobile Home Park. In Highlands Borough, a shed was blown off its foundation and carried by the tornado between two houses. Other structural damage was mainly confined to broken windows, torn shingles and gutters. Maximum wind speeds were estimated at the high end of the F0 scale at about 70 mph.
The radar
The Philadelphia radar (KDIX), 62 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 17:01 UTC.
Event by event
1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.
What these are
- Tornado
- A violently rotating column of air in contact with the ground and extending from a thunderstorm, filed with its path, width and Fujita or Enhanced Fujita rating from the damage survey.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
The same day elsewhere
- Hail and Lightning Strike in Nebraska, August 13, 1997
- Lightning Strike in Arkansas, August 13, 1997
- Hail and Damaging Winds in Nebraska, August 13, 1997
- Lightning Strike in Utah, August 13, 1997
- Lightning Strike in New York, August 13, 1997
- Flood in Florida, August 13, 1997
- Lightning Strike in North Carolina, August 13, 1997
- Hail and Damaging Winds in Oklahoma, August 13 to 14, 1997
- Flash Flood and Hail in Texas, August 13, 1997
- Hail and Damaging Winds in Florida, August 13, 1997
- Lightning Strikes in Pennsylvania, August 13, 1997
- Damaging Winds in New York, August 13, 1997
More
Every storm in New Jersey in 1997Every state in 1997This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for New Jersey, 1997Warnings in New Jersey, August 1997
Sources
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5621502.