Tornado EF-1 has hit Burlington County, New Jersey National Weather Service says

SPRINGFIELD, New Jersey (WPVI) – The National Weather Service has confirmed that Saturday night’s severe storm spawned an affected EF-1 tornado in Burlington County, New Jersey.

The tornado, with winds of 80 to 90 mph, hit Springfield Township, just east of Highway 206 and the Columbus-Jobstown Road intersection, about a mile northeast of Des Burlington County exhibits.

The tornado remained on the ground for 7.9 miles before dissipating near the Ocean County line.

Scattered damage to trees was observed. No injuries were reported.

“Significant tree damage was observed in an area north of Columbus-Jobstown Road. From there, several large limbs were uprooted on Island Road. One tree was uprooted and another was broken on Juliustown-Georgetown Road.” , said the NWS.

Springfield Township residents cleaned up the mess on Sunday morning.

Homeowners felled trees that could fall on their homes off Mount Pleasant Road. Neighbors say this kind of damage is nothing new.

“It’s an annual event. Every time we have strong winds in a straight line, we lose trees. Last year there was one on the house,” said Bob Fredericks, who calls this cleanup a “chainsaw day” for the neighborhood.

He crashed three trees in his yard due to high winds and heavy rains from Saturday’s storm.

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“Huge trees and they make quite a noise. That old saying ‘does a tree fall in the forest and no one is around, can no one hear it?’ Well, we’ve heard them, ”he said.

Other neighbors have had branches bursting roofs and trunks smashing cars, but they say they are lucky.

“Thank goodness no one was hurt. We have cars around the neighborhood that are damaged, but no one has been hurt, so we are grateful for that,” said Jimmy Barnes.

PSE & G teams were also in the neighborhood to assess the cables that fell in the neighborhood.