For the second straight day, severe thunderstorm watches have been issued in New Jersey because of the threat of strong thunderstorms hitting our region Thursday afternoon and Thursday evening.
ALSO: Severe thunderstorm warnings issued as storms ramp up with 60 mph winds
One thunderstorm watch, posted at 1:25 p.m. by the National Weather Service and Storm Prediction Center, covers Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Passaic and Union counties in the Garden State and will remain active through 9 p.m. Thursday. It also includes New York City, the Hudson Valley region of New York and parts of northeastern Pennsylvania.
Another thunderstorm watch was issued at 1:45 p.m. and covers these 16 New Jersey counties: Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Salem, Somerset, Sussex and Warren, effective until 9 p.m.
The latest watch also includes most of eastern Pennsylvania, including the Philadelphia metro area, along with all of Delaware and eastern Maryland.
A watch is not as urgent as a warning. It indicates atmospheric conditions are favorable for the development of thunderstorms that could pack damaging wind gusts as strong as 60 mph or higher, along with frequent lightning and large hail.
Forecasters say Thursday’s intense heat and humidity will contribute to instability in the atmosphere, along with high wind shear, which could boost the risk of small tornadoes developing in some of the strong thunderstorm cells.
The threat level for severe thunderstorms in New Jersey has risen higher for Thursday, June 19. Almost the entire state now has an enhanced risk, which is the third highest threat level on a 5-point severity scale used by the Storm Prediction Center.Storm Prediction Center
Many areas of New Jersey have already seen temperatures soar into the low 90s Thursday afternoon, under partly to mostly sunny skies.
At about 1:15 p.m., isolated thunderstorm cells began to move across parts of eastern Pennsylvania and northern New Jersey. The National Weather Service said one of those cells was a strong thunderstorm heading through eastern Essex County and eastern Hudson County, with winds gusting to about 30 mph or higher.
That storm was not classified as severe, so no formal warnings were issued.
Areas shaded in yellow have been placed under a severe thunderstorm watch from 1:25 p.m. through 9 p.m. Thursday, June 19. Strong storms are expected to ramp up later in the afternoon and evening across all of the Garden State.National Weather Service
The weather service’s regional forecast office in Mount Holly said it is monitoring the potential for thunderstorms to become more organized later today, especially in the Philadelphia metro region, and southern and central New Jersey.
New Jersey has had one confirmed tornado so far this year. A small twister with top winds of 90 to 95 mph touched down on May 16 when a strong thunderstorm was moving across South Jersey.
The National Weather Service determined the twister was 300 yards wide and initially touched down in the Williamstown section of Monroe Township in Gloucester County before moving into Atlantic County.
The weather service said the tornado remained on the ground for more than 8 miles.
During the same storm system, a rare gustnado touched down in the Franklinville section of Franklin Township in Gloucester County.
“A gustnado is a small whirlwind which forms as an eddy in thunderstorm outflows,” the weather service says in its official definition. “They do not connect with any cloud-base rotation and are not tornadoes.”
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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.