The National Weather Service confirmed Saturday that a tornado did indeed touch down in Lawrence Township on Friday evening.
The organization confirmed the weather phenomenon after the National Weather Service’s Mount Holly office sent a storm survey team to Lawrence Township on Saturday morning.
“Our storm damage assessment has confirmed an EF-0 landspout tornado occurred in Lawrence Township, Mercer County, NJ on Friday evening,” The National Weather Service announced on Facebook. “The landspout downed several trees and flipped over a few vehicles in a post office parking lot.”
According tothe full report, the tornado started near the Marwa Service Center and Conoco gas station near the intersection of Johnson Road and US-1, where a few trees were uprooted and some trees were snapped. The tornado then moved northeast to a small wooded area and eventually into a post office parking lot where it flipped over around six cars.
EF-0 is the lowest category for a tornado on the EF-Scale, meaning the tornado had winds ranging from 65 to 85 miles per hour and caused light damage.
Social media photos showed cars flipped by strong winds in Lawrence Township, and community members posted they had seen uprooted trees.
New Jersey was thrashed by strong thunderstorms Friday evening after forecasts predicted hail and heavy wind gusts up to 60 miles per hour in addition to downpours that were part of a 17-county thunderstorm watch that lasted from 4:55 p.m. to 9 p.m.
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Jeremy Schneider may be reached at jschneider@njadvancemedia.com and followed on Twitter at @J_Schneider and on Instagram at @JeremyIsHungryAgain.
