The National Weather Service says a tornado touched down in Northampton County during Monday’s severe storms. WDIY’s Sarit Laschinsky has more.
The National Weather Service dispatched a survey team to the area between Martins Creek in Lower Mount Bethel Township and Belvidere in Warren County, New Jersey on Tuesday, after severe storms rolled through the region the day before.
The team determined that a tornado had touched down in the area. According to the NWS Mount Holly office, the tornado touched down between 2:58 and 3:04 p.m. on Monday and traveled for around 3.37 miles.
The weather service had issued a tornado warning for the Martins Creek and Belvidere areas around 3 p.m.
Preliminary information released by the NWS said the tornado was an EF0 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, which classifies tornados based on estimated wind speed and related damage.
An EF0 is the weakest classification of tornado, with wind speeds between 65 and 85 mph, while an EF5, the scale’s highest level, has wind speeds over 200 mph.
The tornado’s estimated peak wind speed was 65 mph, and the weather service’s survey team confirmed the EF0 rating by using wheat crop damage found to the west of the Martins Creek Belvidere Highway, which showed “convergent damage patterns along a narrow path.”
According to The Express Times, this is the first confirmed tornado in Northampton County since November 1996, while The Morning Call reports that it was the first in the Lehigh Valley since July 2021, when two tornadoes touched down in Lehigh County.
The NWS also confirmed that Monday’s storms produced a second tornado, which touched down in the Bernardsville area of Somerset County, New Jersey.
Monday’s storms also brought significant rainfall to the region, which triggered a flood watch. According to NWS data, Allentown received around 2.2 inches, Bethlehem saw around 2.5 inches, and Easton reported just short of 4.5 inches of rain.
Martins Creek received around 4.4 inches of rain, while Belvidere received over five inches.
The Lehigh Valley has been in a moderate drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor after an extremely dry May. All of Pennsylvania is also under a drought watch, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.
(Original air-date: 6/28/23)
