Tornadoes · United States · New Jersey · 1995
F0 tornado, Deptford, New Jersey, July 22, 1995
This F0 tornado ran 0.8 miles across Gloucester County on July 22, 1995, touching down at 3:30 PM EDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $500,000 to $5 million of property damage.
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.
F040 to 72 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
F4207 to 260 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- F0
- Date
- July 22, 1995
- Touchdown
- 3:30 PM EDT (19:30 UTC)
- Path length
- 0.8 miles (1.3 km)
- Path width
- 50 yards (46 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $500,000 to $5 million
- County
- Gloucester County
- Touchdown point
- 39.850, -75.130
- Record number
- 937
What the Weather Service recorded
A severe thunderstorm caused wind damage in the northeast part of Gloucester County. The damage was exacerbated by a weak tornado (F0 on the Fujita Scale) in Deptford Township. The tornado touched down just east of New Jersey State Route 47 in the Southview Road (Near West Hampshire Road) Red Stone Ridge area. The tornado tore down large trees. One damaged a home. It also tore sections of roofs from several homes and knocked down one chimney. A mile stretch of New Jersey State Route 47 was blocked for several hours because of downed trees. Wind damage from severe thunderstorms also occurred in Mantua as up to two foot wide trees were uprooted. Uprooted trees also occurred in Franklinville and Woodbury. In West Deptford straight line winds knocked over hundreds of trees and pulled a swim club roof off. A 40,000 gallon oil spill occurred in the Delaware River when the damaging winds disrupted an oil transfer from a tanker just off West Deptford's Coastal Eagle Point Refinery.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20:23 UTC | 21:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | PHI |
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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 06:04 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 radar
The Philadelphia radar (KDIX), 62 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:29 UTC.
Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track
Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 1995 tornado in New JerseyEvery tornado in New Jersey since 1950Warnings in force in New Jersey nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of July 22, 1995
2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
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.