Tornado confirmed in Monmouth County; see video
It happened in an instant.
Anne Hauschild was headed home from the beach on Route 33 in Millstone with her 13 and 8-year-old daughters Tuesday afternoon when the skies began to change, darken.
“We were stopped at a red light and instead of the light turning green, it shut off,” she said. “As the cars in front of me started to go, very fast moving, low feathery clouds were crossing the highway. Suddenly the clouds formed into a wide circle and began swirling.”
As the swirling clouds began moving towards her car, Hauschild banked a hard right turn into a cornfield and told her children to keep their heads down.
“Our car started to shake violently. I reached behind me to hold hands with my younger daughter in the backseat. The shaking continued for 20 seconds. With my head down and on top of my 13 year old, I called my husband at work, hysterical, to tell him where we were in case he had to come look for us.”
The shaking stopped. Hauschild and her children were shaken, but safe. Hauschild, a Cranbury resident, experienced what the National Weather Service has now confirmed as New Jersey’s first tornado of the year. The tornado cut a swath of damage just 50 yards wide and 3/4 of a mile long through Millstone Township, according to NWS Mount Holly Meteorologist Kristin Kline.
The damage was consistent with an EF0 tornado, the weakest classification of a tornado on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. A pair of videos posted on YouTube (posted below) appear to show a funnel cloud touching down in Millstone around 2 p.m. Tuesday.
No tornado warning was issued, but a severe thunderstorm warning was in effect for the area. Kline said weak tornadoes are often difficult to detect on radar, as they are typically shortlived.
“This was one of those tornadoes that spun up very quickly, didn’t last very long and it really didn’t cause too much in the way of damage,” she said. “Sometimes the signature (of a tornado) on the radar is only there for one scan, it’s hard for us to detect. If the tornado spins up between radar scans it can be almost impossible for us to see it.”
There were no fatalities or injuries reported, but Kline said the tornado underscores how quickly weather conditions can change and how fast a thunderstorm can quickly become a dangerous situation.
Hauschild said the experience was terrifying.
How Are Tornadoes Formed - News
Suddenly the clouds formed into a wide circle and began swirling.” As the swirling clouds began moving towards her car, Hauschild banked a hard right turn into a cornfield and told her children to keep their heads down. “Our car started to shake
The weak funnel clouds were not expected to touch down to form tornadoes and therefore were not expected to pose a threat. “The conditions were not favourable for either a tornado or a thunderstorm,” said meteorologist Glenn Robinson.
Some of the most powerful tornadoes in the state's history ripped through Alabama, devastating Tuscaloosa. Football didn't seem so important anymore. Instead of the dispatches you got from the Deep South about the twists and turns of the Alabama-Auburn
Residents and communities in Mississippi are recovering from severe storms, tornadoes and flooding that struck the state this spring. The strong partnership between the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency and the Federal Emergency Management Agency
Funnel clouds become confirmed tornadoes when they touch the ground. The Galway funnel cloud was spotted less than 24 hours before another impressive funnel cloud was sighted in the skies over Clonmany, Co Donegal. According to Michelle Diver,
August 7 Puerto Rico Rare Event: A Tornado! | Firsthand Weather
I know I have written about this on my last post but I felt the necessity of making a full post to explain what exactly happened that day. On August 7th, 2011 A thunderstorm formed in central Puerto Rico and started making its way across Northwestern Puerto Rico in the early afternoon. Precipitable water for that day was around 1.70 inches to 2.00 inches which means that there was enough low level moisture. Now combining that with daytime heating, local The thunderstorm that spawned the tornado happened in the northwestern part of Puerto Rico so that in itself is an obstacle in confirming the tornado. The Puerto Rico Doppler Radar (WSR-88D) is installed atop a mountain in order to scan over the Cordillera Central. However, there’s a drawback in doing this. The radar doesn’t scan in a horizontal way, instead it scans in different tilts, with the lowest one being at 0.5 degrees. This means that the farther you go from the radar you are actually scanning a higher part of the atmosphere. So what does all this means in context of the Moca Tornado? Well, the radar scan saw the storm but a higher part of it so the tornado which happened at a lower elevation went undetected.
From 1950 to the present there has been reports of only 14 tornadoes including the August 7th one in Moca. All of those have been F0 except for one that was F1. The first report of a tornado was in 1974 and the last one before this recent one was in 2007. The majority of the reports have been from 1995 to 2006 with 1999 being the year with most reports with 3. Of the 14 tornadoes reported, 1 was a waterspout that touched ground and caused some damage leading to the classification of tornado. Only 4 of the reports have been in eastern Puerto Rico while the rest occured in Western Puerto Rico, where thunderstorms during the wet season is fairly common. The county that has the most reports is Cabo Rojo in southwestern Puerto Rico with 3 reports. The highest concentration of reports from those in the western part have been in the northwestern part, exactly where the one this sunday happened.Any questions, leave a comment and I will reply as soon as possible.
How Are Tornadoes Formed - Bookshelf
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