7 tornadoes confirmed in our region, including Mullica Hill, NJ
September 3, 2021 7:03 AM The National Weather Service confirmed seven tornadoes touched down Wednesday night in our region, spawned by the violent aftermath of Hurricane Ida.
Three tornadoes were confirmed in New Jersey, including a massive EF-3 in Mullica Hill, with winds as high as 150 miles per hour. NWS investigators have mapped the path of that twister from Harrisonville to Deptford. More than a dozen homes were damaged or destroyed. A barn and two 80-foot tall grain silos were destroyed at a dairy farm.
A second tornado hit in Edgewater Park in Burlington County, following a path to Bristol, Pennsylvania. The EF-1 had winds up to 90 miles per hour.
The third confirmed tornado in New Jersey was in Princeton. It was classified as an EF-0 and was only on the ground briefly with peak winds of 75 miles per hour.
We have confirmed 7 tornadoes so far, which occurred on September 1, 2021. This post will be updated as new information…
Posted by US National Weather Service Philadelphia/Mount Holly on Thursday, September 2, 2021
This follows two separate storms in July that produced three tornadoes.
This year has been a summer of violent storms in New Jersey, which averages two tornadoes per year. However, in 20 of the last 70 years, we have had zero. The most active year for tornadoes was 1989, when we saw 17. According to records kept by the Office of the New Jersey State Climatologist, the last time New Jersey experienced an EF-3 was in 1990.
New Jersey 101.5 Chief Meteorologist Dan Zarrow said despite the active weather season New Jersey has been experiencing, we are not close to becoming a “tornado state.” For example, Texas averages 155 tornadoes per year.
Miraculously, no one was killed when the twisters touched down in New Jersey Wednesday night. The deadliest tornado to ever hit the Garden State was in 1835. It twisted a path from Piscataway to New Brunswick, damaging or destroying as many as 150 homes and killing five people.
You can map out all of the tornados to ever hit New Jersey with an interactive map that can be found here.
Although still considered a rarity in New Jersey, there has been enough tornadic activity that state officials recommended in August that families put together a “tornado emergency plan.” Dan Zarrow echoed that sentiment, saying, “When a Tornado Warning is issued for your area, you need to take shelter immediately. Period. Full stop. Do not pass GO. Do not collect $200.”
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