Tornado rips through NJ, taking down trees and flipping half-dozen cars

A landspout tornado ripped through Mercer County, New Jersey Friday afternoon as severe thunderstorms pounded the state with heavy rain and winds. 

The twister, which reached a peak of 80 mph, formed near a Conoco gas station in Lawrence Township, according to Fox Weather meteorologist Cody Braud. 

The tornado was short and brief, traveling from 5:59 p.m to 6 p.m. at just under 229 yards, with a maximum width of 60 yards.

It uprooted trees and caused some to fall onto the service station, snapping a large sign. The tornado then moved on to a post office, where it overturned a half-dozen cars in the parking lot. 

“This might go down as the record for the shortest tornado,” Braud marveled. 

The tornado received an EF-0 rating, which has winds estimated between 65 and 85 mile per hour, Braud said. 

No injuries were reported. 

Landspouts, which form from the ground up and have a narrow, rope-like condensation funnel, tend to be smaller and weaker than tornados formed by supercell storms, according to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration.