For six minutes, a rare February tornado disrupted an otherwise placid Tuesday afternoon in Mercer County.
According to the National Weather Service (NWS), an EF-2 tornado touched down in Lawrence Township and West Windsor Township, with winds reaching 110–115 miles per hour. The tornado lasted for six minutes and traveled along a straight line for 5.8 miles, leaving damage along Quakerbridge Road and in the Lawrence Square Village neighborhood.
No injuries have been reported. According to CBS News, “close to 75 people now have no place to live.” February tornadoes are rare and this is the first one to occur in New Jersey since 1999. According to New Jersey’s Office of Emergency Management, “Tornado season is generally March through August, though tornadoes can occur at any time of year.”
A TigerAlert sent to students at 3:42 p.m. on Feb. 21 said that a Tornado Warning was in effect in the “Princeton, New Jersey area.” A second message sent at 3:58 p.m. informed students that the tornado warning had been terminated and that “normal activities can resume” and the Department of Public Safety (DPS) offered an all-clear.
Despite a graphic posted on Twitter by the NWS claiming that the warning was in Princeton, the NWS Mount Holly warning did not cover the town, but included areas south of it, including Princeton Junction, Hamilton Square, and Twin Rivers.
Though the tornado itself did not pass through Princeton, students experienced severe thunderstorms and hail around 3:30 p.m.
The University’s most recent tornado warning sent out through TigerAlert was on the first day of classes in the fall of 2021, when the remnants of Hurricane Ida produced an EF-0 tornado in Princeton. There were no injuries, but a few struck down trees.
Sandeep Mangat is a Head News Editor of the ‘Prince.’
Lia Opperman is an Associate News Editor for the ‘Prince.’
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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