EF3 Tornado — Gloucester, New Jersey

2021-09-01 · near Harrisonville, Gloucester, New Jersey

Event narrative

The tornado touched down near Harrisonville, NJ doing mostly

damage to trees and limbs before strengthening and moving

northeast. As it moved to the northeast, it crossed into the Cedar

Grove area producing more significant damage to trees with many

trees uprooted.

The tornado moved into the Willow Oaks subdivision strengthening

further and producing significant damage to trees, as well as

serious structural damage to a number of homes. Several homes had

exterior walls completely collapsed, a number of homes lost roofs

and upper story walls, and one home had only a few interior walls

remaining. Vehicles were tossed around and moved, and damage from

flying debris was observed in several spots.

The tornado continued to move to the northeast to Bridgeton Pike

where multiple trees had trunks snapped and most of the barns and

storage buildings at a large commercial farm were completely

destroyed. The tornado also reached its maximum width at this

location and was estimated to be around 400 yards wide.

The tornado then continued northeast through the woods with

multiple trees snapped before entering the subdivision at

Salvatore Drive. Here the tornado's most significant damage was

observed with one home completely destroyed with no interior or

exterior walls standing. Other homes in the subdivision had

exterior walls collapsed along with garage collapses and vehicles

being tossed around by the tornadic winds. The consistency of the

damage along the path of the tornado in this area was EF-3 in the

middle of the circulation, with EF-2 along the edge of the

circulation. In addition, the tree damage was not as extensive

behind the completely destroyed house. Based on the consistency of

the damage along Salvatore Drive, a rating of EF-3 (150 mph) was

determined.

The tornado continued to the northeast damaging trees and

structures along its path before reaching a large commercial dairy

farm where extensive damage occurred. Barns were destroyed and

two large grain silos were toppled. The tornado then crossed

Jefferson Road and crossed Eachus Road snapping multiple trees.

Thereafter, the tornado moved into the Breakneck Road area

producing complete deforestation with nearly 100 percent of the

trees in a thickly wooded area snapped.

The tornado path crossed Main St, just south of Chestnut Branch

Park in Mantua Township snapping and uprooting a number of trees

before reaching the Delaware Valley Florist commercial greenhouse

mostly destroying the structure. The tornado damage path then

continued to the northeast reaching Wenonah, snapping and

uprooting a number of trees, a few homes lost roofs and one

structure collapsed.

Less severe tree damage persisted to the northeast along the

tornado's path toward Deptford where the tornado lifted.

Wider weather episode

The remnants of Hurricane Ida impacted the mid-Atlantic on September 1, 2021. As it moved northward, Ida began transitioning to a strong mid-latitude cyclone with pronounced frontal features, but with continued tropical moisture. On a regional level, the remnants of Ida became one of the most severe natural disasters in US history, due to a combination of several tornadoes, some of them strong, as well as catastrophic flooding over a large and densely populated area. The severe weather threat unfolded as the system's developing warm front lifted northward from the Delmarva region into Pennsylvania and New Jersey. South of the warm front, partial clearing and moderate to strong instability developed. Meanwhile, very strong shear and forcing, along with tropical moisture, were present within the warm sector. The result was widespread convection in the form of both supercell and quasi-linear thunderstorms. A number of storms became severe across the region, producing several tornadoes and other instances of wind damage. This continued an exceptionally active stretch of high end severe weather in the region, coming barely a month after the tornado outbreak of July 29.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (39.6769, -75.2500)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 972306. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.