Was there a tornado in NJ during Friday’s thunderstorms?

🔴 The storms moved through late Friday morning into the early afternoon

🔴 A possible funnel cloud over Pemberton Township is under investigation

🔴 A Thunderstorm Watch for the entire state was quickly dropped

The strong line of thunderstorms that moved through New Jersey may have spawned a tornado.

A wind gust of 61 mph was recorded at the Joint Base Dix-McGuire-Lakehurst in Burlington County while a gust of 55 mph was recorded in Lakehurst.

Pemberton Township police reported seeing a funnel cloud in the vicinity of Country Lakes, which is not far from where a wildfire in the Brendan T. Byrne State Forest burned 850 acres just a week ago.

The National Weather Service is sending a survey team to Pemberton Township.

“Rotation looked strong on radar, and there was a report of a funnel cloud. If they do confirm it was a tornado, it will be New Jersey’s 9th of the year. 2023 would tie for the 3rd highest annual total since record-keeping began in 1950,” New Jersey 101.5 Chief Meteorologist Dan Zarrow said.

Approximately 1,200 JCP&L customers in Plumstead and Jackson lost power right after the storm but the number dropped to 657 customers as of 4 p.m.

JCP&L spokesman Chris Hoenig said numerous trees and branches that fell on lines along Homestead Road in Jackson off Route 571 knocked out power for nearly 2,000 customers.

“We were able to resolve it just by getting the tree limb off the line and refusing it,” JCP&L spokesman Chris Hoenig told New Jersey 101.5.

Branches on lines have caused most of the outages, according to Hoenig. Once a branch is removed, the line is re-energized and power is restored.

Zarrow said the storms dropped about an inch of rain in some areas.  The rain may not do much to alleviate our dry conditions as the water runs off too quickly to be absorbed.

The storms moved through quickly that a Thunderstorm Watch issued for 13 counties was canceled.

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