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Tornado Touched Down in New Jersey Last Week, National Weather Service Says

The EF1 tornado touched down in Harding Township, in Morris County, along Pleasantville Road between 12:23 a.m. and 12:28 a.m. on Friday, the National Weather Service said

What to Know

  • A tornado touched down in New Jersey last week as storms tore through the tri-state, the National Weather Service confirmed
  • The EF1 tornado touched down in Harding Township, in Morris County, along Pleasantville Road between 12:23 a.m. and 12:28 a.m. on Friday
  • The tornado had an estimated maximum wind speed of 100 mph and traveled approximately 4.9 miles, according to the NWS

A tornado touched down in New Jersey last week as storms tore through the tri-state, the National Weather Service confirmed on Sunday. 

The EF1 tornado touched down in Harding Township, in Morris County, along Pleasantville Road between 12:23 a.m. and 12:28 a.m. on Friday, according to the National Weather Service. 

No one was injured by the tornado, but it brought down utility poles and power lines and uprooted trees as it passed through Harding Township, Chatham Township, Madison and Florham Park, where it ultimately dissipated, the NWS said. 

The tornado had an estimated maximum wind speed of 100 mph and traveled approximately 4.9 miles, according to the NWS.

A tornado warning was issued for parts of New Jersey shortly after midnight on Friday. A NWS statement advising people to take cover immediately said "a severe thunderstorm capable of producing a tornado" was located just north of Trenton, moving northeast at 55 mph, with radar indicating rotation.

The borough of Madison was particularly hard-hit. Local authorities declared a disaster area effective at 1 a.m. Friday, authorizing whatever actions needed to be done, from road closures to outside assistance, to repair the damage. 

The ferocious storms that tore through the tri-state area were blamed for the death of a man in New York.

An 82-year-old Catholic priest died after driving his car into a heavily flooded area in Herkimer County; at some point, he left his vehicle to try to save himself and was washed away, authorities said Friday. His body was found hours later, in the New York town of Norway.

State police identified the man as Thomas Connery of Glenville, in Schenectady County. The Diocese of Albany says Connery was pastor of Immaculate Conception church in Glenville from 1990-2007 and had recently been assigned to a church in Herkimer.

The same fierce weather downed trees and wires across the region, leaving a young trick-or-treater with broken bones after it fell on her, pinning her underneath it, as she was out hunting for candy Thursday night.

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