We look at where and when NJ’s deadliest tornadoes have hit

New Jersey’s deadliest known tornado tore through the center of New Brunswick on June 19, 1835, killing five people and carrying debris as far as Manhattan.

Forty others were injured, according to a history compiled by the National Weather Service. The reports that followed were detailed enough to give scientists an early look at how a tornado moved across the landscape.

Nearly two centuries later, tornadoes hit Parsippany-Troy Hills and Stanhope on July 21 as severe storms crossed North Jersey. National Weather Service officials confirmed both touchdowns and sent survey teams to assess the damage and determine the tornadoes’ strength.

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Stanhope had seen a tornado only seven years earlier.

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A National Weather Service survey found that an EF1 struck near Lenape Valley Regional High School on May 28, 2019, with estimated winds of 100 mph. It snapped and uprooted trees, flipped an anchored outbuilding and later damaged homes and vehicles around Unger Avenue.

The storm followed a discontinuous path of about 1.2 miles and lasted roughly 90 seconds. No injuries were reported.

Most New Jersey tornadoes are similarly short-lived. The state averages about two a year, according to the Office of the New Jersey State Climatologist at Rutgers University, and most remain on the ground for no more than a few miles. Nearly a dozen, however, have traveled more than 10 miles.

Complete federal records begin in 1950. Since then, the strongest tornadoes recorded in New Jersey have been rated F3 or EF3, depending on the scale in use at the time. None has received a higher rating.

Two F3 tornadoes struck Morris County on May 28, 1973. National Weather Service records show that one injured 12 people.

Another F3 tore through Montgomery Township in Somerset County on Oct. 18, 1990. It destroyed three homes and injured eight people, according to the Weather Service’s historical account.

More than 30 years passed before New Jersey recorded another tornado of that strength.

The next came on Sept. 1, 2021, when the remnants of Hurricane Ida produced an EF3 in Gloucester County. A Weather Service survey found that the tornado struck near Harrisonville and traveled 12.6 miles through the Mullica Hill area before lifting near Deptford.

Its winds reached an estimated 150 mph. Homes were destroyed, vehicles were tossed and two people were injured.

Most tornadoes recorded in northeastern New Jersey have been considerably weaker.

National Weather Service records list 30 tornadoes in Bergen, Passaic, Essex, Hudson and Union counties from 1950 through 2022. Twenty-seven were rated F0 or F1 under the original Fujita scale, or EF0 and EF1 under the scale used today.

The remaining three were F2 tornadoes, all in Bergen County. They touched down in 1956, 1962 and 1970.

Together, the 30 storms caused three reported injuries and no deaths, the records show.

Several stronger tornadoes have struck the counties farther west.

An EF2 stayed on the ground for 7 miles as it moved through Wantage in Sussex County on July 29, 2009, according to a National Weather Service survey. With estimated winds of 120 mph, it partially collapsed two barns, destroyed a silo and damaged two others.

No one was injured. The Weather Service described it as the strongest tornado recorded in Sussex County since the modern record began.

The tornado that struck West Milford on Sept. 11, 1997, was much shorter.

NOAA storm records show that the F1 remained on the ground for about 30 seconds near Wonder Lake. It knocked down roughly 150 trees, including two that fell through a house and the Wonder Lake clubhouse. Other trees damaged at least four vehicles and brought down power lines.

No injuries were reported.

The state’s tornado record has grown more quickly in recent decades, but Rutgers climatologists caution that the increase does not necessarily mean tornadoes are forming more often.

Weak, short-lived tornadoes were easier to miss before Doppler radar, cellphone cameras and organized damage surveys. Reports are also more common in populated areas, where tornadoes are more likely to be seen and their damage documented.

A tornado that crossed woods or farmland without striking a building or attracting attention may never have entered the record.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: We look at where and when NJ’s deadliest tornadoes have hit