Philadelphia

Tornado Takes 1.3-Mile Path Across Mount Laurel; 2nd Twister to Hit Town in Less Than a Week

An EF1 tornado touched down in Mount Laurel, Burlington County, Thursday night

For the second time in less than a week, a tornado touched down in a New Jersey town as severe, deadly storms slammed into the Philadelphia region Thursday.

The EF1 tornado, packing winds up to 90 mph took a 1.3-mile path across part of Mount Laurel, Burlington County, from 7:18 to 7:21 p.m. Thursday, the National Weather Service out of Mount Holly said.

The twister was 150 yards wide at its maximum as it moved through the Ramblewood and Birchfield neighborhoods, the NWS said.

It started in a “relatively open area on the Ramblewood (Country Club) golf course” before crossing into a wooded area, across Church Street and into the Birchfield neighborhood, the NWS said.

The storm uprooted and damaged trees, did minor damage to some apartment buildings and damaged at least one home, the NWS said. No one, however, was hurt.

This tornado came during a string of storms Thursday afternoon and evening that hit especially hard in Berks County, Pennsylvania, where a pregnant woman, her son and another boy died in separate flooding-related incidents.

Thursday’s tornado followed a weak twister that hit over the weekend about 0.8 miles away, near the New Jersey Turnpike. That storm also caused minor damage.

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