F1 tornado, Somers Pt, New Jersey, July 5, 2001

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

July 5, 2001

Touchdown

6:10 PM EDT (22:10 UTC)

Path length

3.6 miles (5.8 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$10,000

County

Atlantic County

Touchdown point

39.320, -74.600

Lift-off point

39.330, -74.570

Record number

346

An F1 tornado caused wind damage in Somers Point and Linwood. About six homes were damaged by the tornado. More than 30 trees were either uprooted or badly twisted. Electrical, telephone and cable wires were knocked down. Siding was ripped off several houses and one porch was badly damaged. At least one vehicle was damaged by downed trees. About 400 Conectiv customers lost power. Strongest winds were estimated at about 90 mph in Somers Point. The tornado apparently touched down as a waterspout over Patcong Creek and then moved into Somers Point. It crossed the Garden State Parkway near mile marker 30.4. The first observed wind damage were trees down on Bala Drive. Wind damage also occurred on Bucknell and Exton Roads. On Bucknell Road, a boat was tossed 90 feet into a neighbor's yard. The tornado traveled eastnortheast down Southview Drive across Chapman Boulevard. It was this location where it reached its maximum intensity, badly damaged a porch and uprooted several large trees. The tornado proceeded to move through Crestview Drive, across U.S. Route 9, Euclid Avenue and Abbey Road before entering Linwood near West Royal Drive. Trash cans were flying in circular motions. The last property damage occurred in Linwood near Candlewood Drive where a couple of bird house poles were bent and twisted. The tornado continued on the ground through the marshes before it dissipated as a waterspout over Scull Bay. The total path length was about 3.6 miles. The tornado was not on the ground its entire length. Its maximum width was about 100 yards. No serious injuries were reported.

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 20:35 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 live radar over the trackEvery 2001 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.