EF2 Tornado — Ocean, New Jersey

2021-07-29 · near Barnegat, Ocean, New Jersey

Event narrative

The same supercell which produced a tornado in the New Jersey

Pine Barrens cycled and produced another tornado in far eastern

Ocean County. The tornado touched down near the immediate western

shore of Barnegat Bay. At least one building near Bay Beach off

Bayshore Dr sustained roofing damage. The tornado then moved over

Barnegat Bay as a waterspout. It came ashore in the area of High

Bar Harbor in Long Beach Twp.

The most severe damage was noted to a house on the corner of

Antioch Rd and Arnold Blvd. This house was facing west-southwest,

and had its entire roof structure lifted off and tossed one to two

houses to the east. The house walls remained standing but most of

the doors and windows on the east and west sides of the house

were completely blown out, with significant damage to the inside

of the house. A two- by-four from an adjacent house impaled the

wall on the west side of the house. Eight people were in the house

at the time the tornado hit, but they were able to take shelter

in an interior closet, with only minor injuries sustained. In

addition, on the north side of the house, a car in the driveway

was pushed sideways several feet and their boat flipped into their

neighbor's boat. The boat's trailer was tossed about 50 feet into

a house just to the east. The degree and orientation of damage

was consistent with tornadic winds of 115 to 120 mph, which is EF2

intensity.

Continuing east-northeast, about a dozen homes on the south side

of Arnold Blvd sustained significant uplift of roof material,

siding damage or removal, collapse of porch, patio, and sunroom

structures, and blown out windows. Several large trees were

uprooted and lay pointing to the east-northeast, as well as downed

power poles.

The tornado moved east or slightly north of east from Arnold

Blvd, over an open salt marsh, before intersecting a few houses on

the corner of Collier Rd and Sunset Blvd. The most significant

damage was to a house on the northwest corner of Collier and

Sunset, which sustained siding damage, partial roof removal,

blowout of the storm surge walls on the basement level of the

elevated structure, and a large tree uprooted and laying to the

east-northeast. Power poles and large trees were downed on Sunset

Blvd, adjacent to the High Bar Harbor Yacht Club. There was damage

to several boats in the yacht club marina, but this was mainly

due to lofted debris being tossed into the marina. The circulation

then moved into the cove east of the marina. However, no further

significant damage was noted on the east side of the cover in

Barnegat Light, indicating the tornado had likely lifted. This is

corroborated by radar data which showed a weakening of the

circulation and a likely dissipation before it crossed into the

open Atlantic.

Wider weather episode

A strong shortwave trough moved east-southeastward out of the Great Lakes region on July 29. An associated, strengthening surface low also tracked out of the Great Lakes and into upstate New York. A warm front associated with this low moved through most of New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania during the late morning and early afternoon hours. This front, combined with the remains of widespread convection to the west from the previous overnight and morning hours, brought significant cloud cover to the eastern mid-Atlantic for much of the day on the 29th. This was mainly in the form of mid and high level cloud cover, however, and temperatures still warmed to near seasonal levels behind the warm front, allowing moderate to strong instability to build. Meanwhile, the robust surface and upper level disturbances approaching the region brought both strong forcing and unseasonably strong wind shear. By mid-afternoon, an unusually favorable convective environment existed over eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

The result of this environment was a rare tornado outbreak across the area. Initially, during the mid-afternoon hours, mixed convective modes over east-central Pennsylvania produced a couple instances of damaging wind and brief tornadoes as storms attempted to overcome cloud cover and some light stratiform rain in the area. With time, as storms moved into better instability and a less contaminated environment over far eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey, they took on more supercellular structures. Multiple cyclic supercells would go on to produce several tornadoes, three of them strong (EF2+) over eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Convection persisted past the sunset hour with little to no loss in intensity due to the strong forcing. The only thing that put an end to the outbreak was the coastline, as storms moved offshore towards 9 to 10PM local time. Even offshore, one supercell continued to exhibit strong rotation and likely produced a strong waterspout for tens of miles over the Atlantic.

Fortunately, and miraculously, no serious injuries or loss of life occurred as a result of this outbreak. With the passage of a cold front late on the evening of the 29th, cooler, drier, and much less active weather would grace the region for several days as clean-up efforts began.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (39.7540, -74.1910)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 965636. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.