EF1 tornado, Star Cross to Folsom, New Jersey, May 16, 2025

1. EF065 to 85 mph

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

2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

   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

EF1

Date

May 16, 2025

Touchdown

12:42 PM EDT (16:42 UTC)

Lifted

12:53 PM EDT (16:53 UTC)

On the ground

11 minutes

Path length

8.1 miles (13.0 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$60,000

Counties

Gloucester and Atlantic counties

Touchdown point

39.650, -75.010

Lift-off point

39.594, -74.877

Record number

2505161042-01

14 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 104 mph.

• Tree was cleaned up by the time it was surveyed, but still could see snapped trunk; not a fully healthy tree with some rot in the trunk.
• Also several branches broken
• scattered tree limbs down further south from the tornado path
• Unknown damage direction; repaired by the time it was surveyed

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

A stationary front over the region resulted in two rounds of severe thunderstorms. The first was in the late morning through mid day. After a few hours lull, a second round of thunderstorms occurred late in the afternoon through the evening.

The tornado originated in Williamstown near the intersection of Janvier Rd and Tuckahoe Rd where a large hardwood tree fell across Janvier Rd and some siding from the corner of a house peeled off. The tornado then moved SSE crossing Birch Ave where several hardwood trees were snapped at the trunks. This is where the tornado reached its greatest width of 300 yards. Traveling SE from there, where it likely lifted at times, the tornado crossed W Malaga Rd near the Victory Lakes community, damaging a wood fence and several small tree branches. Continuing its discontinuous path SE, a telephone pole was snapped near the intersection of E Piney Hollow Rd and US 322 before moving SSE again towards the Collings Lakes neighborhood.

The first damage in Collings Lakes was noted along Malaga Road where large branches were downed and some metal roof sheeting was peeled off an out building. Continued damage, mostly large branches downed continued near the intersection of Cains Mill Road and Colton Lane. The last observed damage in this path was near the intersection of |Cloverdale Lane and Wiltshire Drive.

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.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 14:06 UTC and running to 18:06 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 16:28 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.

Millville Municipal (MIV), 31 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Philadelphia radar (KDIX), 58 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 16:41 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 2025 tornado in New JerseyEvery tornado in New Jersey since 1950Warnings in force in New Jersey nowThe forecast where you are

26 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.