Tornadoes · United States · New Jersey · 2021

EF0 tornado, Tuckerton, New Jersey, July 9, 2021

This EF0 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Ocean County on July 9, 2021, touching down at 3:33 AM EDT and reaching 110 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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.

  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.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
July 9, 2021
Touchdown
3:33 AM EDT (07:33 UTC)
Lifted
3:34 AM EDT (07:34 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.3 miles (0.4 km)
Path width
110 yards (101 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Ocean County
Touchdown point
39.570, -74.360
Lift-off point
39.572, -74.365
Record number
2107090133-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Tropical Storm Elsa affected much of the coastal mid-Atlantic on the night of July 8 and into the morning of the 9th. The storm maintained much of its intensity despite a long track over land as it began to interact with a mid-latitude trough. Overall, impacts across the mid-Atlantic were fairly minimal. One to three inches of rain, locally a little higher, fell across a large area, but produced little in the way of flooding impacts. With the center tracking near the coast, tropical storm force wind conditions were limited, and confined mainly to immediate coastal areas. Elsa did produce a couple of short-lived tornadoes over eastern New Jersey. The storm was fast moving, and departed into New England a few hours after daybreak on the 9th.

An EF-0 tornado touched down in a residential area along Sycamore |Drive in Little Egg Harbor Township. The tornado snapped numerous |large tree limbs and snapped a few trees along Sycamore Drive and |Harbourtown Boulevard. One small tree was uprooted on Sycamore |Drive. Some homes suffered some cosmetic damage along Rosemont Lane |and Harbourtown Boulevard where some sections of vinyl fencing were |blown over. The tornado continued along Rosemont Lane where numerous |tree limbs were down. A residence at the intersection of Rosemont |Lane and Vista Court had 2 sections of wooden fencing blown out and |tossed approximately 50 feet, striking the rear side of the house. A |few houses along Vista Court also sustained some cosmetic damage. |The tornado ended at the end of Vista Court where a few trees were |snapped or uprooted.

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

The warnings

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.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
18:26 UTC18:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningPHI
21:00 UTC10:22 UTCFlash Flood WatchPHI
06:05 UTC14:00 UTCFlood AdvisoryPHI
07:38 UTC07:56 UTCTornado WarningPHI
08:41 UTC09:15 UTCTornado WarningPHI
00:25 UTC01:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningPHI

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 Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:07 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 surface observations

Atlantic City International (ACY), 22 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
05:54 UTC7473100° 15 kt1008.8+RA BR
06:05 UTC747390° 14 kt1008.1+RA BR
06:12 UTC7474100° 18 kt261007.5+RA BR
06:29 UTC747490° 20 kt281006.1+RA BR
06:52 UTC73.473.470° 18 kt301005.1+RA BR
06:54 UTC747480° 17 kt301005.1+RA BR
07:01 UTC747380° 22 kt351004.4+RA BR
07:24 UTC7373100° 16 kt321003.4+RA BR
07:31 UTC7373100° 16 kt241003.4RA BR
07:54 UTC737360° 6 kt1002.4-RA BR
08:02 UTC737330° 7 kt1002-RA BR
08:18 UTC737350° 7 kt1002-RA BR
08:51 UTC73.471.610° 10 kt1001.4-RA BR
08:54 UTC737210° 8 kt181001.4-RA BR
09:01 UTC7372330° 11 kt1001.4
09:17 UTC7372300° 13 kt1002-RA
09:21 UTC7372300° 15 kt261001.7-RA
09:30 UTC7372300° 20 kt331002-RA

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

The radar

The Philadelphia radar (KDIX), 42 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 07:30 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)ReportWhereCountyRemark
06:40 UTCTORNADO1 Ese WoodbineCape May, NJAN EF-1 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN NEAR THE ENTRANCE OF THE OCEAN WORLD CONDOMINIUM COMPLEX IN WOODBINE WHERE IT UPROOTED TWO CEDAR TREES. THE TORNADO COMPLETELY DESTROYED A PICNIC SHELTER AT THE COMPLEXS PARK AREA AND SPREAD
06:43 UTCTROPICAL STORM1 E WoodbineCape May, NJA TREE WAS SNAPPED ALONG FREDERICKSTADT AVENUE. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR.
06:45 UTCTROPICAL STORM2 Wsw TuckahoeCape May, NJA FEW TREES WERE UPROOTED ALONG WOODBINE ROAD. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR.
07:00 UTCFLOOD3 Sw Atlantic CityAtlantic, NJROADWAY FLOODING AROUND SOUTH RALEIGH AVENUE AND THE BOARDWALK.
07:15 UTCFLOODSomers PointAtlantic, NJROADWAY FLOODING.
07:33 UTCTORNADOLittle Egg Harbor TwpOcean, NJAN EF-0 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN IN A RESIDENTIAL AREA ALONG SYCAMORE DRIVE IN LITTLE EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP. THE TORNADO SNAPPED NUMEROUS LARGE TREE LIMBS AND SNAPPED A FEW TREES ALONG SYCAMORE DRIVE AND HARBOURTOWN BOULEVARD.
08:19 UTCTROPICAL STORM4 Ese Lanoka HarborAnz451, NJSUSTAINED WIND 47 MPH AT ISLAND BEACH STATE PARK BATHHOUSE #1 - KNJBERKE13.

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

This ground now

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

The other tornadoes of July 9, 2021

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 92:40 AM EDTEF1Cape May, NJ0.975

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.