Tornadoes · United States · New Jersey · 1994

F1 tornado, Hunterdon County, New Jersey, August 17, 1994

This F1 tornado ran 1.5 miles across Hunterdon County on August 17, 1994, touching down at 4:15 PM EDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. F040 to 72 mph

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. F173 to 112 mphthis tornado

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. F2113 to 157 mph

    Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

  4. F3158 to 206 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. F4207 to 260 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. F5261 to 318 mph

    Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

  7. Unrated

    The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

The record

Rating
F1
Date
August 17, 1994
Touchdown
4:15 PM EDT (20:15 UTC)
Path length
1.5 miles (2.4 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Hunterdon County
Touchdown point
40.570, -74.750
Record number
914

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 06:42 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

The air that afternoon

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Atlantic City In, NJ (KACY), 12:00Z

8.3 hours before the tornado, 126 km from the path. August 17, 1994.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Atlantic City In, NJ at 12:00Z on 1994-08-17Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 255 joules per kilogram, CIN -71, lifted condensation level 702 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Atlantic City In, NJ at 12:00Z on 1994-08-17The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 89 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 49 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
255 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-71 J/kg
Surface CAPE
9 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
702 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
49 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
89 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
96 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.2
0-3 km lapse rate
4.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Atlantic City In, NJ (KACY), 00:00Z

3.7 hours after it, 126 km from the path. August 18, 1994.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Atlantic City In, NJ at 00:00Z on 1994-08-18Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 324 joules per kilogram, CIN -23, lifted condensation level 723 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Atlantic City In, NJ at 00:00Z on 1994-08-18The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 166 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 28 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
324 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-23 J/kg
Surface CAPE
337 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
723 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
166 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
247 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.3
0-3 km lapse rate
4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1994 tornado in New JerseyEvery tornado in New Jersey since 1950Warnings in force in New Jersey nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of August 17, 1994

9 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
August 172:42 AM EDTF2Henry, VA4.330010$5 million to $50 million
August 1711:05 AM EDTF0Calvert, MD2.050$50 to $500
August 174:15 PM EDTF0Morgan, WV3.0100$50 to $500
August 173:33 PM CDTF1Kingfisher, OK2.040$5,000 to $50,000
August 175:40 PM EDTF1Berkeley, WV2.0100$50,000 to $500,000
August 176:56 PM CDTF0Mitchell, IA0.223
August 177:16 PM CDTF1Beckham, OK2.040$50,000 to $500,000
August 179:10 PM EDTF1Harnett, NC1.050$50,000 to $500,000
August 179:45 PM CDTF2Foard, TX2.040$50,000 to $500,000

What this means

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.