A tornado briefly touched down in New Jersey and its fierce winds flipped a car

[John Farley]

A tornado flipped a car in New Jersey

A landspout tornado briefly touched down near Philadelphia on Saturday and the high winds flipped over a car.

www.cnn.com

 

[JamesCaruso]

@John Farley I just happened to mention this in an unrelated post, this is about an hour from where I live and there was a separate tornado warned storm for my town but I missed the event while away for the holiday weekend. Got to see a nice shelf cloud while away in Maine though (which is what my post was about). Just like storm chasing, see something cool and miss something better LOL

 

[Lou Ruh]

A tornado flipped a car in New Jersey

A landspout tornado briefly touched down near Philadelphia on Saturday and the high winds flipped over a car.

www.cnn.com

They were very quick to declare it a landspout and do a survey (done by two of the newest meteorologists at the office) and rate it EF0. With HVAC units ripped off the roof, the EF scale seems to say at least EF1 but, I have not seen things first hand, so, not sure if I can argue with the rating. Also narrow and short ... path width max 5 yards and length 0.07 miles ... slightly longer than a football field but it would fit between the hash marks on a college field.

 

[John Farley]

I saw that, Lou, and I would have my doubts about that, too. As I understand it, it usually takes more than EF-0 to flip a car. But again, like you, I wasn't there.

 

[Nicholas Isabella]

I was thinking the same thing. This would be the 4th confirmed tornado in the area since May 28th and the other surveys took at least a day or two. Not saying anything is wrong with that however a few hours seems a bit quick.

 

[JamesCaruso]

Can't comment on the rating but seems plausible to classify it as a landspout. Winds were generally weak that day, e.g. 15 knots at 500mb, didn't seem like favorable conditions for a mesocyclone.

 

[Gary Latimer]

Can't comment on the rating but seems plausible to classify it as a landspout. Winds were generally weak that day, e.g. 15 knots at 500mb, didn't seem like favorable conditions for a mesocyclone.

Agree... also looking at the radar actively that day (and satellites), it would seem more probable that a non-mesocyclone situation created the tornado.

The rapid response “may” have been attributed to the location of the tornado to the NWS Mount Holly FWO... but the rating, seems out of line with the definitions. Flipping car and HVAC ripped off the roof (along with other structural damage) would seem more in line with EF-1 rating... but like others have said, I only witnessed the damage from released video footage. In any event, NJ has had quite a bit of severe weather in 2019... now we head into the “hot & humid” phase of our summer here in the Garden State. Stay safe everyone...

 

[Lou Ruh]

There was another tornado yesterday (7/11/2019) in Mount Laurel ... almost the same location as the July 6 tornado. Yesterday's was rated EF1. Folks in south Jersay are all atwitter about this.