Tornadoes · United States · New Jersey · 2012
EF0 tornado, Gloucester Hgts, New Jersey, September 4, 2012
This EF0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Camden County on September 4, 2012, touching down at 6:31 PM EDT and reaching 25 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $25,000 of property damage.
The rating scale
Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
EF2111 to 135 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.
EF3136 to 165 mph
Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
EF5over 200 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
- EF0
- Date
- September 4, 2012
- Touchdown
- 6:31 PM EDT (22:31 UTC)
- Lifted
- 6:32 PM EDT (22:32 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 0.2 miles (0.3 km)
- Path width
- 25 yards (23 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $25,000
- County
- Camden County
- Touchdown point
- 39.877, -75.097
- Lift-off point
- 39.879, -75.097
- Record number
- 1209041631-01
What the Weather Service recorded
Thunderstorms associated with the remnants of Hurricane Isaac helped produce a tornado in Camden County and a funnel cloud in Burlington County. They also caused isolated wind damage in Sussex County.
A weak EFO tornado touched down in Mount Ephraim at 631 p.m. EDT on the 4th. The tornado initially touched down on the west side of Cleveland Avenue. It then moved eastnortheast, crossed Jefferson Avenue and lifted as it approached Kings Highway. (County Route 551). Several homes in the area experienced roof damage, mainly from fallen tree limbs. A couple of large trees were uprooted. One badly damaged a concrete sidewalk. The maximum wind speeds were estimated at 70 mph. The path length was about 0.15 miles and the maximum path width was 25 yards.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
1 minute of warning. NWS PHI issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:30 UTC, 1 minute before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:00 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 05:55 UTC | 10:00 UTC | Flood Advisory | PHI |
| 07:41 UTC | 09:49 UTC | Flood Advisory | PHI |
| 16:08 UTC | 20:00 UTC | Flood Warning | PHI |
| 16:15 UTC | 18:01 UTC | Flood Warning | PHI |
| 17:47 UTC | 20:20 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | PHI |
| 20:37 UTC | 23:30 UTC | Flood Advisory | PHI |
| 22:10 UTC | 23:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | PHI |
| 22:30 UTC | 23:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | PHI |
| 23:01 UTC | 23:56 UTC | Flood 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 19:40 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.
Phillips Aaf/Abe, MD (KAPG), 12:00Z
10.5 hours before the tornado, 97 km from the path. September 4, 2012.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 869 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -18 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1662 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 600 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 23 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 14 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 50 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 51 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.7
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.6 K/km
The surface observations
Philadelphia Intl (PHL), 11 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20:36 UTC | 82.4 | 73.4 | 170° 7 kt | 1012.5 | TS | |
| 20:54 UTC | 82 | 73 | 110° 4 kt | 1012.5 | TS | |
| 21:05 UTC | 80.6 | 75.2 | 0° 0 kt | 1012.5 | -TSRA BR | |
| 21:12 UTC | 80.6 | 73.4 | 180° 6 kt | 1012.5 | -TSRA | |
| 21:15 UTC | 80.6 | 73.4 | 210° 6 kt | 1012.5 | +TSRA | |
| 21:20 UTC | 78.8 | 75.2 | 280° 6 kt | 1012.9 | +TSRA BR | |
| 21:41 UTC | 78.8 | 73.4 | 300° 7 kt | 1013.2 | +TSRA BR | |
| 21:47 UTC | 78.8 | 75.2 | 280° 9 kt | 1012.9 | +TSRA BR | |
| 22:00 UTC | 73.4 | 71.6 | 100° 8 kt | 20 | 1012.5 | +TSRA BR |
| 22:03 UTC | 73.4 | 71.6 | 100° 8 kt | 20 | 1012.5 | -TSRA |
| 22:14 UTC | 77 | 71.6 | 90° 8 kt | 15 | 1012.2 | -TSRA |
| 22:49 UTC | 78.8 | 75.2 | 150° 5 kt | 1011.9 | ||
| 22:54 UTC | 79 | 75 | 150° 5 kt | 1011.9 | ||
| 23:54 UTC | 79 | 76 | 150° 5 kt | 1011.5 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Philadelphia radar (KDIX), 59 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:29 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.
What was reported nearby
Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22:31 UTC | TORNADO | Mount Ephraim | Camden, NJ | KINGS HIGHWAY AND JEFFERSON AVENUE. NUMEROUS TREES DOWN AND SOME ROOF DAMAGE AND WIRES PULLED FROM HOMES. CONFIRMED EF-0 TORNADO WITH WINDS OF 70 MPH. PLEASE REFER TO PNS FOR MORE. |
| 22:43 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Mount Ephraim | Camden, NJ | NUMEROUS TREES DOWN IN THIS AREA. NUMEROUS FUNNEL CLOUD REPORTS BLACKHORSE PIKE AND KINGS HIGHWAY. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2012 tornado in New JerseyEvery tornado in New Jersey since 1950Warnings in force in New Jersey nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of September 4, 2012
1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 4 | 7:37 PM CDT | EF2 | Grant, WI | 0.7 | 75 | $420,000 |
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.