F1 tornado, Plainfield to Clark, New Jersey, September 7, 1998

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.

Rating

F1

Date

September 7, 1998

Touchdown

2:35 PM EDT (18:35 UTC)

Path length

0.2 miles (0.3 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$550,000

County

Union County

Touchdown point

40.630, -74.320

Lift-off point

40.630, -74.320

Record number

1216

An intense line of severe thunderstorms oriented from north to south developed during Labor Day afternoon ahead of a strong approaching cold front. As the storms moved east at 40 to 50 mph, they produced high winds, large hail, and isolated tornadoes. Wind gusts from 60 to 80 mph combined with hail up to 1.75 inches in diameter caused damage to houses (roofs and gutters), trees, and power lines across the region. The cost estimates of damage included above are preliminary figures submitted by the Union County Office of Emergency Management.In Essex County, the following peak wind gusts were reported: 74 mph at West Orange and 68 mph in Millburn. High winds downed trees in Newark.In Union County, the following peak wind gusts were reported: 72 mph in Roselle, 71 mph in Garwood, 70 mph in Mountainside, and 69 mph in Elizabeth. High winds caused a Tommy Hilfiger Blimp to break loose from its' mooring at Linden Airport. When it struck a power line, the blimp was destroyed. Officials said it may cost up to $8M to fix. Small planes also toppled over at Linden Airport. A trailer was overturned in Linden. High winds also caused a tree to fall into and damage a house on Church Street in Rahway. Preliminary cost damage estimates for Rahway range from $700K to $1M based on newspaper articles. The combination of high winds and large hail damaged roofs and gutters in Roselle. Large hail also fell: 1.75-inch in diameter at Union City, 1.25-inch in diameter was reported at both Mountainside and Garwood and 1.00-inch in diameter was reported in Roselle.

An F0 tornado touched down in a highly populated residential area from Northern Plainfield east across Southern Scotch Plains. Signs of rotation were evident in damage to trees and eyewitness reports included the sighting of funnel clouds. The Mayor of Plainfield estimated that the township lost at least 95 trees.

An F1 tornado occurred across Northcentral Clark. There was significant damage to large trees. A narrow path of large trees were sheared off more than midway down their trunks near the Cali Center at 100 Walnut Avenue. The Mayor of Clark estimated that the township lost at least 150 trees. Based on radar signatures and eyewitness reports, wind gusts were estimated at 110 mph.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 10:39 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 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.

The Philadelphia radar (KDIX), 76 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:36 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.

The live radar over the trackEvery 1998 tornado in New JerseyEvery tornado in New Jersey since 1950Warnings in force in New Jersey nowThe forecast where you are

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

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