Tornado Record Tied As 7th Confirmed In NJ

NEW JERSEY — The state tied the record for the most tornadoes in one day on Saturday, the National Weather Center confirmed, with seven of the powerful wind storms touching down in New Jersey.

The NWS's latest confirmation was in Mays Landing, where a storm with 100-mile-an-hour winds tore a path almost a mile long.

NJ's seven twisters struck southern counties: Burlington, Ocean, and Monmouth. This tally ties the record set on Nov. 15, 1989, according to state climatology data.

No injuries or deaths have been reported, but the high winds left a mess in a number of communities. A tornado in Jackson reached 130 miles per hour, collapsing a recreation facility near Six Flags Great Adventure. And, another in Sea Girt heavily damaged a New Jersey National Guard Training Center warehouse for a residential youth program.

Tornadoes were also confirmed in Pennsylvania and in Delaware, where a man died — the first tornado-related fatality in the state since July 1983 according to the NWS.

Patch storm coverage:

Meteorologists use the Enhanced Fujita scale to measure tornadoes, classifying them on a six-level scale from EF-0 to EF-5.

Winds in Jackson, Howell, and Sea Girt were 120 miles per hour or more, making these EF-2 storms.

The tornadoes in Crosswicks, Mays Landing, and from Cinnaminson-Moorestown as well as from Allentown-Cream Ridge were F-1 storms with winds between 100 and 110 mph.

Another storm in Burlington County, which blew through Palmyra and Riverton, was determined to be straight-line winds and not a tornado

The most powerful of the New Jersey tornadoes was in Jackson, with peak winds of 130 mph, which traveled 2.1 miles.

Data from the office of the state climatologist shows the year NJ had the most tornadoes was in 1989, when the state measured 19 tornadoes over the course of the year.

Since then, the highest annual count was in 2021, when there were 13 tornadoes statewide. This data is published by Rutgers' NJ Agriculture Experiment Station.