EF0 tornado, Rockaway, New Jersey, August 19, 2021

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 19, 2021

Touchdown

2:38 AM EDT (06:38 UTC)

Lifted

2:40 AM EDT (06:40 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

0.9 miles (1.4 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Morris County

Touchdown point

40.902, -74.533

Lift-off point

40.913, -74.525

Record number

2108190038-01

4 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS PHI, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 100 mph.

• Likely start point. Vinyl fence blown over.

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

The remnants of Tropical Storm Fred affected the mid-Atlantic region on the night of August 18 into the predawn hours of August 19. In addition to heavy rain and areas of flooding, Fred's remnants brought a threat for severe weather. As the center of the system moved from central Pennsylvania into the Finger Lakes region of New York, it became increasingly frontal in nature. A warm sector air mass overspread the eastern mid-Atlantic. Instability was limited due to the overnight timing. However, strong shear and forcing combined with tropical moisture allowed for widespread convection to occur as Fred's remnants moved through. Several instances of damaging wind and a couple of tornadoes occurred in the region during the overnight hours, before the system departed on the morning of the 19th.

A velocity couplet formed in Morris County early in the |morning of August 19th in association with thunderstorms as the |remnants of Tropical storm Fred moved across the region. A weak |tornado formed from this couplet, first touching down along Mount |Pleasant Avenue and Irwin Place in Rockaway Township, New Jersey, |where several small branches and a portion of a vinyl fence were |brought down. From there, the tornado moved through a subdivision, |bringing down several small pine trees and branches along Lenox |Road, Arlene Drive, and Miller Avenue. A few small branches were |then brought down as the tornado proceeded northeast across |Fleetwood Drive. The tornado then crossed Interstate 80, snapping |several trees along Reservoir and Katherine Road. A few large |branches were also knocked down in this area as the tornado |lifted.

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

5 minutes of warning. NWS PHI issued a tornado warning for this county at 06:33 UTC, 5 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 07:00 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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:41 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.

Morristown Municipal (MMU), 15 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Philadelphia radar (KDIX), 107 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 06:39 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 2021 tornado in New JerseyEvery tornado in New Jersey since 1950Warnings in force in New Jersey nowThe forecast where you are

5 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.