EF0 tornado, Cedar Run to Manahawkin, New Jersey, August 13, 2013

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

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

2. EF186 to 110 mph

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

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. EF4166 to 200 mph

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

6. 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.

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

EF0

Date

August 13, 2013

Touchdown

10:05 AM EDT (14:05 UTC)

Lifted

10:13 AM EDT (14:13 UTC)

On the ground

8 minutes

Path length

3.2 miles (5.1 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$250,000

County

Ocean County

Touchdown point

39.685, -74.269

Lift-off point

39.713, -74.222

Record number

1308130805-01

A complex of showers and thunderstorms produced both wind damage and flash flooding across southern new Jersey. The wind damage included an EF0 tornado in Manahawkin (Stafford Township in Ocean County). An isolated severe thunderstorm then occurred during the evening of the 13th in Morris County. Cloud-to-ground lightning strikes peaked at 6,000 per hour as this complex moved through New Jersey. The thunderstorms caused about 14,500 homes and businesses to lose power on the 13th.

An EF0 tornado touched down in Manahawkin (Stafford Township) on the morning of the 13th. The estimated maximum wind speed was 85 mph and the maximum path width was 100 yards. The estimated path length was 3.2 miles. There were no reported injuries or fatalities and damage was estimated at $250,000. The tornado initially touched down in the Cedar Run section near the intersection of U.S. Route 9 and Oak Avenue. The tornado lifted while it was moving through the Manahawkin Wildlife Management area. Numerous trees were blown down or snapped along the path of this tornado as were utility poles. There was roof and second floor wind damage to the Lighthouse Christian Academy and also the Manahawkin Baptist Church off of Hilliard Boulevard. One downed tree damaged a home, a trailer was flipped and wind damage occurred to the Moose Lodge off of New Jersey State Route 72. The worst reported wind damage occurred around Oak Avenue, East Bay Avenue and Hilliard Boulevard. U.S. Route 9, New Jersey State Route 72, Hilliard Boulevard, Beach Avenue, Stafford Avenue and Parker Street were all closed.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

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, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 12:57 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), 31 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 14:05 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.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2013 tornado in New JerseyEvery tornado in New Jersey since 1950Warnings in force in New Jersey nowThe forecast where you are

2 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.