It Was A Tornado That Touched Down In Middletown, NWS Confirms

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — Lincroft residents were positive the high winds and tree damage they witnessed was a tornado Wednesday morning.

And, after the National Weather Service (NWS) investigated, it turns out they were correct.

It was an actual tornado that first touched down on the Brookdale campus baseball diamond just before 10 a.m. Wednesday and then continued on a 1.2-mile path of destruction down Phalanx Road and over Swimming River Reservoir.

The National Weather Service investigated, reviewed damage photos and videos (some of which was submitted by Patch) and on Thursday, made the official declaration: It was indeed a twister. The tornado had maximum wind speeds of 80 miles per hour, a path of 70 yards and a path length of 1.2 miles. It touched down for a mere two minutes, from 9:57 a.m. to 9:59 a.m.

Residents in the area insisted what they had just experienced was a tornado, as 70-foot-tall trees were slammed into homes, into pools and brought down fences and power lines. Nobody was injured.

"It was crazy," one Lincroft resident told Patch. "Trees were tossed in people's swimming pools, fences torn up. It looks like a war zone."

"When we got to the basement, you heard everything just stop, it just went quiet," said Greengrove Court Ben Harris told the Asbury Park Press. "I think it was a tornado because I never heard anything go silent like that. Came back out and obviously you can see what happened."

The NWS had just put the entire area under a tornado warning Wednesday morning, just minutes before the twister struck, even texting residents to get into their basements immediately.

"It just got really dark, windy and started raining pretty hard," said Marguerite Portagallo, a Lincroft resident who lives near the Christian Brothers Academy campus. "I then went to the basement because we got an alert on the phone to take shelter."

The official tornado confirmation did not come as a surprise to Middletown volunteer firefighters who responded to the damage Wednesday.

"It does fit in with what I saw. It had a narrow path. The neighbor at the top of Greengrove Court did not have one leaf out of place," said Middletown volunteer firefighter Dennis Fowler.

Fowler, 63, said he's lived in Middletown his entire life and never heard of a tornado hitting the area.

"Never to my memory," he said, adding he was going to ask some longtime Middletown residents in their '90s if they've ever heard of a tornado here before.

"A tornado touched down on a baseball field on the campus of Brookdale Community College in the Lincroft section of Middletown. It tossed a set of metal bleachers to the field, then crossed over Phalanx Road into a residential area, with numerous trees sustaining damage on and around Hickory Lane," read the National Weather Service's report. "The tornado continued a little south and passed near the northeast corner of Swimming River Reservoir, causing additional tree damage. It then entered another residential area near Swimming River Road and Normandy Road, producing a continued path of damaged trees."

The tornado ran out of steam as it entered Riverdale West Park, said the National Weather Service.

Initial Patch report: Trees Strike Middletown Homes After Tornado Warning In Monmouth

From the National Weather Service: (you can read their statement here: https://nwschat.weather.gov/p.php?pid=202008201508-KPHI-NOUS41-PNSPHI)

...SUMMARY...
A TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN ON A BASEBALL FIELD ON THE CAMPUS OF BROOKDALE COMMUNITY COLLEGE IN THE LINCROFT SECTION OF MIDDLETOWN TOWNSHIP IN MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY. IT TOSSED A SET OF METAL BLEACHERS ADJACENT TO THE FIELD, THEN CROSSED OVER PHALANX ROAD INTO A RESIDENTIAL AREA, WITH NUMEROUS TREES SUSTAINING DAMAGE ON AND AROUND HICKORY LANE. TREE DAMAGE MAINLY CONSISTED OF BROKEN LIMBS AND THE SNAPPING OF SOME TREES NEAR THEIR TOPS. AT LEAST ONE TREE WAS ALSO UPROOTED IN THIS AREA.

THE TORNADO CONTINUED A LITTLE SOUTH OF DUE EAST AND PASSED NEAR THE NORTHEAST CORNER OF THE SWIMMING RIVER RESERVOIR, CAUSING ADDITIONAL TREE DAMAGE. THE TORNADO THEN ENTERED ANOTHER RESIDENTIAL AREA NEAR SWIMMING RIVER ROAD AND NORMANDY ROAD, PRODUCING A CONTINUED PATH OF DAMAGED TREES.

THE TORNADO LIFTED AS IT ENTERED THE RIVERDALE WEST PARK, WHERE TREE DAMAGE WAS NO LONGER OBSERVED. THE TORNADO DID NOT APPEAR TO CAUSE ANY DIRECT STRUCTURAL DAMAGE, THOUGH A COUPLE OF HOMES SUSTAINED DAMAGE FROM FALLING TREE DEBRIS. THE DEGREE OF DAMAGE IS CONSISTENT WITH AN EF0 TORNADO WITH ESTIMATED MAXIMUM WINDS OF 80 MPH AND A CONTINUOUS, RELATIVELY NARROW PATH OF AROUND 70 YARDS IN WIDTH. THANKFULLY, NO INJURIES OCCURRED AS A RESULT OF THIS TORNADO.

Wind speeds of 65 to 86 mph are considered the weakest kind of tornado, according to the enhanced Fujita scale, which classifies tornadoes as the following:

EF0...WEAK......65 TO 85 MPH
EF1...WEAK......86 TO 110 MPH
EF2...STRONG....111 TO 135 MPH
EF3...STRONG....136 TO 165 MPH
EF4...VIOLENT...166 TO 200 MPH
EF5...VIOLENT...>200 MPH

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