Tornado Watch Issued for 7 NJ Counties

Tornado Watch Issued for 7 N.J. Counties

The National Weather Service has issued a tornado watch for parts of New Jersey today as severe thunderstorms could produce isolated tornadoes and damaging winds.

The National Weather Service has issued a tornado watch for parts of New Jersey as multiple rounds of strong to severe thunderstorms are expected to move through the region Thursday afternoon and evening.

The watch, issued at 3 p.m., includes seven southern New Jersey counties: Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester and Salem.

The tornado watch remains in effect until 10 p.m. Thursday.

Earlier in the afternoon, those counties were under a severe thunderstorm watch. However, the National Weather Service later took the unusual step of canceling that watch for South Jersey and replacing it with a tornado watch.

A severe thunderstorm watch remains in effect through 10 p.m. for parts of northern and central New Jersey.

Although a tornado watch is less urgent than a tornado warning, forecasters say some storms developing Thursday could become strong enough to produce tornadoes.

The threat of tornadoes is greatest across southern New Jersey, where the Storm Prediction Center estimates a 5% to 9% chance of a tornado occurring within 25 miles of any given location.

While those percentages may seem relatively low, they represent a notable and uncommon threat for New Jersey. Stay up-to-date with the local https://tomsriver.org/weather/.