EF0 tornado, Windsor to Hightstown, New Jersey, August 7, 2019

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 7, 2019

Touchdown

4:33 PM EDT (20:33 UTC)

Lifted

4:34 PM EDT (20:34 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.3 miles (0.5 km)

Path width

25 yards (23 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Mercer County

Touchdown point

40.214, -74.549

Lift-off point

40.218, -74.546

Record number

1908071433-01

10 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS PHI, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 75 mph.

• Old wooden door blown open and debris scattered in greenhouse
• Small branch snapped from pear tree.
• Flower planters overturned.
• Cherry tree up to 2 feet in diameter snapped.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

A cold front along with a robust shortwave trough gradually approached the eastern mid-Atlantic on August 7. A pre-frontal surface trough was also in place. Ahead of the front, a warm and moist air mass built through the day. Strong instability developed, along with moderate wind shear. Convection initially developed along the pre-frontal trough. Later, a squall line associated with the front and trough combination moved through the region. Given the strong instability and adequate shear, numerous storms became severe, primarily producing damaging winds. In addition, low level shear was sufficient to help spawn a couple of brief tornadoes in New Jersey.

A weak tornado briefly touched down on the property of Voorhees |Greenhouse in Hightstown, NJ on the afternoon of Wednesday, |August 7. The tornado began near Sharon Road, where several trees |and branches were downed. The most significant damage observed was|to a greenhouse, whose glass roof was shattered. Shards of glass |were blown for hundreds of yards, with many shards also piercing |clean through the doors and walls of a nearby barn. A few metal |support beams from the greenhouse were also tossed up to 200 yards|from their original position, with a number of loose outdoor |objects tossed about in a chaotic, yet circular manner often |consistent with tornadic winds. Eyewitnesses working at the time |reported seeing circulating winds and a possible condensation |funnel as damage to the greenhouse was occurring. The tornado then|passed over a barn, scattering shards of glass, flower planters, |and support beams. Many of these objects were deposited on the |other side of the barn into a nearby field. Several trees |sustained damage to limbs and branches, but all were left upright.|The tornado dissipated as it moved into a clearing beyond the |wooded area. One woman received a minor cut from flying glass, but|thankfully, no serious injuries occurred as a result of this |tornado, which was especially fortunate given the large volume of |broken glass strewn about the impacted property.

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.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 18:13 UTC and running to 01:00 UTC.

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 20:00 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), 32 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:32 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 2019 tornado in New JerseyEvery tornado in New Jersey since 1950Warnings in force in New Jersey nowThe forecast where you are

4 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.