A storm survey team from the National Weather Service has confirmed a small tornado touched down Friday afternoon when a strong thunderstorm was sweeping across a neighborhood in Atlantic County in southern New Jersey.
The twister was an EF-0 tornado that was about 25 yards wide, generated winds of 65 to 75 mph and remained on the ground for a half-mile, the weather service said Friday evening.
An EF-0 is the weakest tornado on the six-level severity scale that’s used by the weather service.
The small twister touched down in the Collings Lakes section of Buena Vista Township at 12:52 p.m. and lifted back up about a minute later, the weather service said.
“The first damage was noted along Malaga Road, where large branches were downed and some metal roof sheeting was peeled off an outbuilding,” the agency noted.
Residents clean up storm damage on Bellwyn Lane where a tree crashed into a house in the Collings Lakes section of Buena Vista Township, N.J. on Friday, May 16, 2025.Jim Lowney | For NJ Advance Media
“Continued damage, mostly large branches downed, continued near the intersection of Cains Mill Road and Colton Lane,” the weather service said. “The last observed damage in this path was near the intersection of Cloverdale Lane and Wiltshire Drive.”
Additional sporadic tree damage occurred along other parts of Cains Mill Road further south, but the weather service determined that damage was caused by straight- line winds from a thunderstorm, not by a tornado.
In the early afternoon on Friday, three tornado warnings were issued in South Jersey, and the weather service received reports of a “possible tornado” in the Buena Vista Township area of Atlantic County.
Photos showed a large tree that had crashed through the roof of a house in the Collings Lakes neighborhood, but it wasn’t immediately clear if that damage was a direct result of the tornado or a thunderstorm.
In a rare step, the National Weather Service issued a new severe thunderstorm watch Friday afternoon for nine counties that had already been under a thunderstorm watch and multiple storm warnings earlier in the day.
The new thunderstorm watch covers Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester, Mercer, Ocean and Salem counties. It’s effective through midnight Friday.
The watch was activated in response to a second wave of strong thunderstorms expected to rumble across southern and central New Jersey Friday evening and Friday night.
With high humidity and instability in the atmosphere, some of those storms may be packing powerful wind gusts, frequent lightning and hail as big as ping pong balls, forecasters said. An isolated tornado can’t be ruled out, according to the National Weather Service and the Storm Prediction Center.
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Len Melisurgo may be reached at LMelisurgo@njadvancemedia.com or on X at @LensReality.