Weather
Details Of Tornado's Path Of Destruction In Somerset County Released
The EF-1 tornado was found to have produced winds of 105MPH and snapped many tree trunks in its wake of destruction.
BERNARDSVILLE, NJ — Details of a confirmed tornado in Somerset County showing its path of destruction were released on Wednesday by the National Weather Service(NWS).
The EF-1 tornado is believed to have touched ground at 3:29 p.m. near Bernardsville along the NJ Transit Line just to the southwest of the intersection of Minebrook Road and Old Quarry Road, according to the NWS.
The 475-yard-wide tornado traveled 1.4 miles through the borough before dissipating at 3:34 p.m.
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🌪️ We've confirmed 2 tornadoes from Monday's severe weather and flooding event. One was in Somerset County, NJ and the other was in Northampton County, PA. You can read the details of these tornadoes in the linked statement: https://t.co/sN2AoayFz4 #NJwx #PAwx pic.twitter.com/N0eUsPPDVS
— NWS Mount Holly (@NWS_MountHolly) June" class="redactor-linkify-object">https://twitter.com/NWS_MountH... 29, 2023
At the start, the tornado dropped numerous trees onto the train tracks and snapped the trunk of around 10 trees before moving northeast.
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It then uprooted two maple trees along Mine Brook behind the Rose Bowl Baseball/Softball Field.
The tornado then made its way northeast into Bernardsville where it caused tree damage along Laurel Lane and snapped the trunk of a tree that appeared not to be fully healthy, said NWS.
Following Mine Brook the tornado then began causing damage from Timber Rock Trail to Anderson Hill Road where it snapped the trunk of a pine tree that ended up falling on a vehicle, said NWS.
This is where the peak width of the tornado's damage path, around 475 yards, was done.
Officials found more damage along the path of Anderson Hill Road moving to the north towards the intersection of Seney Drive and Anderson Hill Road where numerous trees were brought down with at least two ending up on power lines, said NWS.
Another large tree (found not to be healthy) has its trunk snapped at the intersection of Anderson Hill Road and Rolling Hill Road.
As the tornado started to weaken, it took down several more trees along Old Fort Road including uprooting multiple trees with wide, shallow root systems.
The tornado then dissipated as the storm moved further to the northeast.
The tornado was designated as an EF-1 rating due to the number of trees with snapped trunks with the highest concentration in a single location being along the NJ Transit line. It is believed wind speed of 105 MPH was reached at this point.
The investigation of the damage was done by the NWS Survey Team along with the help of Somerset County Emergency Management and the New Jersey Office of Emergency Management.
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