UPDATE: Severe thunderstorm watch posted for parts of N.J. Threat of hail, damaging winds, possible tornado.
New Jersey faces a possible rerun of yesterday’s hot and rainy weather conditions — with new threats of severe thunderstorms, steamy temperatures and uncomfortable humidity on tap for Thursday afternoon and Thursday evening.
Added to the mix is another potential threat: Isolated tornadoes.
That’s the word from the National Weather Service and the Storm Prediction Center, which say high instability and wind shear in the atmosphere could cause some thunderstorm cells to spawn funnel clouds today.
Although there’s only a 2% to 4% chance of a tornado touching down in the Garden State region Thursday, that’s a higher probability than it usually is during a typical summer thunderstorm outbreak.
Forecasters say there's a slight chance of isolated tornadoes in New Jersey on Thursday, June 19, 2025, when strong thunderstorms sweep across the region in the late afternoon and evening.Storm Prediction Center
Most of New Jersey faces an “enhanced risk” of severe thunderstorms today, which is a higher risk than forecasters had previously expected. Enhanced is the third highest of five threat levels used by the national Storm Prediction Center to alert the public about potentially strong storms with destructive wind gusts.
For now, the only weather alerts that are active in the Garden State are heat advisories for four counties: Burlington, Camden, Gloucester and Mercer. Those advisories are active through 8 p.m. Thursday, because the heat index — how hot it feels when humidity is combined with the air temperature — may get as high as 98 to 99 degrees.
In the Philadelphia metro region, it could feel as hot as 100 degrees this afternoon.
This is the severe thunderstorm risk scale used by the Storm Prediction Center. On Thursday, June 19, most of New Jersey is in the orange "enhanced risk" level, and New York City is in the yellow "slight risk" level.National Weather Service
Thursday will be starting out with mostly sunny skies before storm clouds move in during the late afternoon, forecasters said.
“The anticipated peak timing” of the thunderstorm activity is 4 p.m. to 10 p.m., the weather service’s forecast office in Mount Holly said.
New Jersey will likely see slightly lower temperatures and lower humidity on Friday and Saturday before another stretch of intense heat builds on Sunday and continues through the middle of next week.
Air temperatures will be soaring into the low 90s Thursday afternoon, but high humidity could make it feel as hot as the upper 90s in many areas of New Jersey.National Weather Service
Air temperatures could make a run for 100 degrees on Monday in some parts of the state, and the heat index in many areas could peak as high as 100 to 105 degrees during the afternoon hours Sunday through Wednesday.
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Stories by Len Melisurgo
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Len Melisurgo may be reached at LMelisurgo@njadvancemedia.com or on X at @LensReality.