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The National Weather Service confirmed four tornadoes touched down in northern New Jersey and New York during severe storms on Tuesday.
Weather experts were on the ground in those areas Wednesday to investigate and determine the strength of each tornado.
Tornado statistics for New York and New Jersey
In New York, officials confirmed an EF-0 tornado with a width of 40 yards developed in Purchase, Westchester County. It traveled 1.82 miles toward Rye Brook and reached wind speeds of 85 mph. It lasted for about seven minutes, from 4:10-4:17 p.m.
All three tornadoes in northern New Jersey were determined to be EF-1 strength.
A tornado in the Stanhope-Mount Olive area in Sussex County reached wind speeds of 80-90 mph. It started at 2 p.m. and lasted for about five minutes. It grew to a width of 250 yards and traveled 1.4 miles.
Two touched down in Morris County – one in the Roxbury/Lower Berkshire Valley area and one in the Troy Hills/Pine Brook area.
The tornado in Roxbury/Lower Berkshire Valley had the strongest winds at 100-110 mph. It only lasted for about three minutes, from 2:15-2:17 p.m. It was 250 yards wide and traveled for just 0.6 miles.
In the Troy Hills/Pine Brook area, a tornado with wind speeds of 80-90 mph lasted for just one minute starting at 2:50 p.m. It was 70 yards wide and traveled for 0.2 miles.
Video shows wild winds in Mount Olive
A Ring camera captured video of intense winds right in front of Gionna Wasser's home in Mount Olive, New Jersey. Wasser said she was at work Tuesday when she got a tornado warning and pulled up the camera feed.
"All of our Amazon packages, you know, went in like a funnel cloud into, like, down the road," she said, "and we had two shutters from our house completely ripped off and go down the street, as well."
The path of destruction brought trees down behind her townhome. Wasser and her husband were already recovering from damage from another storm earlier in July.
"We had roof damage, and now we have additional roof damage from this. More trees went down in the back, but, thankfully, they fell the other direction," Wasser said.
Down the road, another massive tree fell at a hotel.
"We saw actually the big burst with the fire, and we saw the tree come down in the back," guest Lois Nagie said. "It got very dark. It started to rain. There was a lot of thunder and lightning, and just almost sounded like a train coming through."
Witnesses scramble for cover
Carlos Ramos said he was working at the Firestone along Route 56 in Parsippany when his phone started going off with alerts about a tornado warning. Moments later, he says a funnel cloud began to form.
"It got very windy, the rain was coming sideways, you see leaves and debris picking up on the ground," he said.
Ramos said he watched the cloud move east, while other workers in the area scrambled to find cover.
"They were coming into each other from different directions. The wind would blow one way, then it would switch to another way, then sideways. Pretty crazy," added Patrick Sandelli, who works nearby.
Brian Stiroh watched the sky disappear behind fast-moving clouds from his backyard in Parsippany. He described the storm as chaotic, unexpected and volatile.
"It seemed like a normal storm. Visually, it didn't look the same. But within a matter of two minutes, the whole thing shifted," he said.
He added, "The sirens started to go off. Drizzle started to happen, and probably within a matter of 30 seconds, it just started downpouring."
Steve Downs watched the same funnel cloud from his office building.
"The clouds were kind of gathering together and then phones started going crazy," he said. "Everyone was like, should we run downstairs? Should we get out of the window?"
Residents were happy the storm left just as fast as it arrived.
"All of a sudden, it just seemed like it moved on, and it went off to the side a bit and dissipated," Downs said.
What NWS looks for
The NWS team explained what exactly it looks for for to make a determination.
"So are trees, are they uprooted? Are they snapped?" investigator Sarah Johnson said. "Generally, when you have a narrower path of damage, that's more likely to be a tornado, versus if you have a wider path of damage, that's more likely to be straight-line winds."
Investigators also look at how the debris is laying. Debris laying toward other debris suggests a tornado, while debris fanning out from a central point would more likely indicate straight-line winds.
Fortunately, no injuries have been reported in any of the areas where the tornadoes touched down.
The NWS said it will release the findings of its preliminary survey later Wednesday.
