Severe Weather Fact Sheet

There are a number of severe weather hazards that affect New Jersey, including thunderstorms, hurricanes, lightning, floods and flash floods, damaging winds and large hail. Severe weather hazards have the potential to cause extensive property damage, injury and/or death.

• A tornado is a violent, rotating column of air extending from a thunderstorm to the ground.
• Most tornado damage paths are less than 100 yards wide and a couple of miles long but can be such as a mile wide and 50 miles long.
• Most tornadoes occur in the spring, but have occurred every month of the year.
• Most tornadoes produce winds 60 to 120 mph. The most violent tornadoes can produce winds up to 318 mph.
• Thunderstorms can produce strong winds, lightning, hail or heavy rain.
• Each year, more people are killed by lightning than by tornadoes. Most deaths occur in open fields (ball fields) and under or near trees.
• Thunderstorms are most likely to happen in spring and summer.
• Large hail does extensive damage to property and crops every year.
• Flooding is the number one severe weather killer nationwide.
• Nationally, 75% of the presidential declarations are the result of floods.
• Floods can take several hours to days to develop.
• Other deaths occur when people (especially children) play in or near flood waters and when people living near flooded streams try to protect property or save belongings.
• Dam failures and ice jams can cause severe flooding.
• The most dangerous type of flooding is a flash flood.
• Flash floods can sweep away everyone and everything in their path.
• Flash floods can take only a few minutes to a few hours to develop.
• Most flash floods are caused by slow-moving thunderstorms.
• Flash floods occur most frequently in mid to late summer.
  

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