Name: Tornado in New Jersey, September 23, 2003
Start: 2003-09-23T06:52
End: 2003-09-23T06:57
Location: New Jersey

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

Open the live radar over this ground

The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: $500,000
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 forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Philadelphia/Mount Holly wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Sep 23, 2:52 AM EST, 4 hours earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Sep 23, 2:52 AM EST, 4 hours before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION...CORRECTED TO INCLUDE DE CTY PA IN WATCH
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MOUNT HOLLY NJ
352 AM EDT TUE SEP 23 2003

DROPPING FLD WATCH ESSENTIALLY FROM PHL E...SPECIFIC CNTYS LISTED
BLO...AS THAT AREA DID NOT HAVE SGFNT RAINS LAST WK...AS OPPOSED TO
OUR NWRN ZONES AND AREA TO THE IMMEDIATE W OF PHL.

OTRW...PCPN SHOULD END FM THE W BY NOON OR SHRTLY THRFTR...THEN DRY
INTO THU WHEN NXT FNT ARRIVES FM THE NW. SLOWED PCPN TIMING DOWN
JUST A BIT...BGNG THU MRNG NWRN ZONES AND THU AFTN SERN ZONES.

OTRW...LEFT EXTDDS PRETTY MUCH AS THEY WERE.

NO CHGS ON THE MARINE...SML CRAFT REMAINS UP ALL WTRS.

ZONES AND UPDATED FLOOD WATCH SHOULD FLY BY 430 AM.

.PHI...FLOOD WATCH THIS MRNG PA54-55,60-62,67-70 NJ1,7 DE1 MD8
       SML CRAFT ADVY CST AND DE BAY.

KRAUS

Hazardous weather outlook, Sep 23, 5:28 AM EST, 1 hour 24 minutes before

DEZ001>004-MDZ008-012-015-019-020-NJZ001-007>010-012>027-PAZ054-055-
060>062-067>071-231230-

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MOUNT HOLLY NJ
628 AM EDT TUE SEP 23 2003

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR EAST CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST
PENNSYLVANIA...DELAWARE...THE NORTHERN MARYLAND EASTERN SHORE...AND
NEW JERSEY EXCLUDING THE FIVE NORTHEAST COUNTIES.

.DAY ONE...TODAY

FLOOD WATCHES REMAIN IN EFFECT THIS MORNING FOR MUCH OF THE AREA TO
THE NORTH AND WEST OF PHILADELPHIA...AND FLOOD WARNINGS HAVE BEEN
ISSUED FOR SOME COUNTIES. THE RAIN WILL MOVE EAST AND SHOULD BE OFF
THE COAST BY EARLY AFTERNOON. STORM TOTALS WILL EXCEED THREE INCHES
IN SOME SPOTS.

THERE IS A MODERATE RISK OF RIP CURRENTS TODAY ALONG THE NEW JERSEY
AND DELAWARE COASTS.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...

NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

SPOTTERS ARE ASKED TO CALL IN WITH SIGNIFICANT RAINFALL TOTALS...OF
TWO INCHES OR MORE.

KRAUS

In the hours before

Special weather statement, Sep 23, 4:45 AM EST, 2 hours 7 minutes before

DEZ001>003-MDZ008-012-015-019-020-NJZ001-007>010-012-015>019-021-
PAZ054-055-060>062-067>071-231115-

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MOUNT HOLLY NJ
545 AM EDT TUE SEP 23 2003

...AREA OF HEAVY RAIN MOVING SLOWLY EAST...

AT 530 AM...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE RADAR SHOWED AN AREA OF HEAVY
RAIN MOVING SLOWLY EAST ACROSS EASTERN PENNSYLVANIA AND MARYLAND. IT
EXTENDED FROM THE POCONOS THROUGH ALLENTOWN PA...SOUTH THROUGH
CHESTER COUNTY AND THEN ALONG THE NORTHERN CHESAPEAKE BAY. RAINFALL
AMOUNTS OF OVER AN INCH IN LESS THAN HALF AN HOUR HAVE BEEN
REPORTED. THE RAIN WILL SLOWLY SHIFT EAST INTO THE PHILADELPHIA AND
WILMINGTON AREAS AFTER 6 AM...AND ALSO INTO WESTERN NEW JERSEY AND
THE NORTHERN DELMARVA.

BE ESPECIALLY CAUTIOUS ON THE ROADS THIS MORNING...AS THERE WILL BE
WATER PONDED IN LOW LYING AREAS AND UNDERPASSES. SLOW DOWN AND ALLOW
FOR EXTRA SPACE BETWEEN YOU AND THE CARS AROUND YOU.

A FEW OVERNIGHT RAINFALL REPORTS THROUGH 530 AM...READING AIRPORT
IN BERKS COUNTY...2.93 INCHES...AND MOUNT POCONO AIRPORT IN MONROE
COUNTY...2.42 INCHES.

KRAUS

The radar

The Philadelphia radar (KDIX), 71 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 11:53 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.

Tornado, Hunterdon

When: September 23, 6:52 AM EST to 6:57 AM EST
Where: Hunterdon County, 1 mi E of Sergeantsville
Rating: F1
Path length: 2.6 mi
Path width: 50 yd
Property damage: $500,000
Reported by: NWS STORM SURVEY
Coordinates: 40.450, -74.917

An F1 (on the Fujita Scale) tornado touched down in Hunterdon County in Delaware and Raritan Townships. It touched down around Zentek Road and Green Farm Lane. It moved east across Lambert Lane, Sandbrook-Headquarters Road, Yard Road, County Route 579 and lifted over the Copper Hill Country Club in Raritan Township just before reaching New Jersey State Route 31 and U.S. Route 202. Numerous trees and wires were uprooted. The property wind damage in Delaware Township occurred along Yard Road and County Route 579. On Yard Road, a two story barn and a chicken coop were destroyed. In all about a dozen properties on Yard Road suffered damage. They had holes in their roofs, porches flattened, windows shattered, barn doors pulled and siding torn away. A piece of one roof was carried one quarter of a mile. Substation power lines were torn down in the township and caused most of the 8,000 outages in the county. A ten-by-ten barn was carried by the tornado and dropped on County Route 579. A barn was blown off its foundation on County Route 579. A garage was flattened by a tree on the county road; another had a trampoline blown onto it. In Raritan Township, the wind damage was concentrated around the Cooper Hill Country Club and Hampton Corner Road. Two homes were damaged by fallen large trees. The tornado remained on the ground for about 2.6 miles, its path width was about 50 yards and the estimated maximum wind speed was about 75 mph.

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

More

Every storm in New Jersey in 2003 Every state in 2003 This day in weather history The tornado archive for New Jersey, 2003 Warnings in New Jersey, September 2003

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: 5371530.