What to Know
- After a rare tornado warning was issued Tuesday, a strong line of thunderstorms ripped through central New Jersey with powerful winds that caused trees to be ripped out of the ground in Pennington and West Windsor.
- The warning was issued for parts of Mercer, Middlesex and Monmouth counties at 3:40 p.m. and canceled at 4 p.m.
- The National Weather Service confirmed the tornado was a category EF2, with maximum wind speeds between 105 and 115 mph.
A tornado spun off as storms caused damage in parts of Mercer County, New Jersey, late Tuesday afternoon.
The National Weather Service on Wednesday preliminarily confirmed that a tornado hit in the Quaker Bridge area of Mercer County. The weather service later confirmed the tornado was a category EF2, with maximum wind speeds between 105 and 115 mph.
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Winter twisters are rare in the Garden State. This is just the fifth February tornado confirmed in New Jersey since 1950 and the first since 1999, according to the Office of the New Jersey State Climatologist.
A Tornado Warning was issued for Hamilton Square, Twin Rivers and Hightstown in Mercer County around 3:40 p.m. Tuesday. The warning was canceled around 4 p.m.
Footage from SkyForce10 showed downed trees and damage to homes in Lawrence Township, New Jersey, shortly after the warning was canceled.
The Newark Star Ledger reported meteorologists from the National Weather Service would visit parts of Mercer County on Wednesday to investigate whether a tornado touched down. The survey team is inspecting the damage near West Windsor and Lawrenceville to determine if there was evidence that a twister was responsible or if the damage was caused by straight-line thunderstorm winds.
The storms also caused trees to topple on cars while large branches blocked roads at the Lawrence Square Village condo community.
As the sun rose on Wednesday, iced-over cars could be seen damaged by trees.
"I never saw something so raw in front of my eyes just taking all the fences away," Heena Randhawa, a resident, told NBC10. "And that cabinet is heavy."
Randhawa said her glass cabinet was tossed to the ground.
"My son was in the middle of the living room," she said. "So I was just about to grab him. Then I had to hide in the bathroom."
Randhawa recorded video of the aftermath.
"It felt like someone was probably doing construction on the top of the roof and something just fell on top of it. Felt like a loud boom," she said. "This was such a miracle that it came on my balcony footsteps. Thank god no one was hurt."
Officials in Lawrence Township and Hamilton Township closed off Quakerbridge Road to allow crews to clear the streets that led to a condo community.
"Three affected," Lawrence Township Fire Department Director of Emergency Management Jack Oakley said. "They have some structural damage. Some roofs that were ripped off and some windows that were blown out. But 27 units in those three buildings are uninhabitable. They all have power electric because everything's underground."
That amounts to about 75 people out of their homes.
Luckily, no injuries were reported.
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